@Jasonhill, I don't think you'll get an answer for various reasons. First fact, that you don't have your own place to live, so rent or buy? you saying no risky investments like stocks, but you can do business, means may never have done either and thus might be equally tricky. It's a case of choosing your poison.there are very many variables to this equation that only you can figure out. For anyone one to be precise they'll have to get more details about you than you'd be comfortable giving in a public forum.

4,800,000Ksh a year madhaquer.... ok. That's a reasonable assessment. Thanks for the breakdown. On a solid, conservative investment... let's say a government bond, how much would I need to invest into the bond? Would an 5% return on such a bond, or a bank fixed deposit seem feasible? Are the returns from investment income taxed? If so, at what rate? If 4.8m is what I need yearly from the investment, that's about 96mil in government bonds or bank CDs that I'd need to invest in order to live off the interest. I guess the biggest question is taxation on the capital gains. It's pretty high here in the US. Is it also high in Kenya?

Fomoney... Thanks for your comment. I understand that my question was fairly broad. Thanks for your input.

@jas-here,paper planning rarely work. Js be flexible to try anything legal, get down to the fryin pan n you will be suprised.

JASONHILL: Taxes on returns like government bonds are taxed at 15% if the bond has a life of less than 10 years.If the maturity time is more than 10 years,taxation is 10%.Kenya govt sometimes offers infrastructure bonds for financing infrastructure projects like roads.They are tax exempt.For more on these please go to...www.centralbank.go.ke....

jasonhill, are you white?

@VituVingiSana, thanks for the advice. Can you tell me what goods stand out in your mind that are more expensive or are of an unusable quality? Maybe we'll get together one day and find a way to import better goods at cheaper prices. 99.999% of goods sold in the USA are made in China. There must be a fair amount of "rebadging" going on for Kenyans to think that US products are of a higher quality. I don't see why we can't cut out the middle man and import direct from China. The only thing that the USA and UK companies do is make Chinese companies refund their (and thus the customer's) money for shoddy items and offer warranties to customers. The warranty simply means that they will send a bad item back to China and China sends out a new, working item. Labor is too expensive in the US and UK to repair most things- cheaper to replace. That said, I don't understand what seems to me to be a Kenyan affinity for US and UK goods, and an aversion to Chinese goods. All the US and UK do is quality-assess and inspect the goods, and demand the better quality yields, and better specifications of the same products from the same factories in China. If we enforce such wholesale quality and spec demands of China from Kenya, we will be able to offer good products for cheaper and make a fortune. What I don't know about, not having done business in Kenya, is import duties and getting stuff through the port of Mombasa... paperwork gets stalled... that's my biggest concern. I can't have that. I'll pay kitu kidogo, if I have to. In the US, kitu kidogo is called "consulting fees" and "union scale" or some other catchy term. There is no difference, except once it is paid things move very, very quickly. I just can't ever have business waiting- ever. That would put us at a tactical disadvantage. On the other hand, I don't want to have to commute to Mombasa every other day to make sure my stuff gets offloaded and into trucks. Other than that, there's billions of Shillings in retail if we cut out the middleman, in my view, and I look to my fellow Wazuans to "show me the ropes".

@X13united, thanks for the comment. I love the fact that it seems that Kenya is at the point where a great deal of money can be made in international business by being flexible and adapting to changing market conditions and needs. I'm open to any legit business that I can understand that isn't a pyramid scheme, and that I have a direct, on-the-ground hand in directing and contributing to. That's my issue with stocks- if I'm not on the board of directors, I have a problem, because I lack the influence to move the stock- unless I buy a controlling interest in it in which case I'd install myself as COO.

@jmbada, I agree totally. In the US, having house helps is out of the question unless you make around 80,000,000Ksh+ a year. Labor is very, very expensive and regulated. That's the greatest luxury to me: multiple personal assistants. In the US I have a work-only secretary. I need a personal one (or two). Every other luxury item, besides very fast internet and maybe a decent Italian suit or two, I can do without. I'm as comfortable in a Changaa joint with a giant straw as in the Sarova for lunch drinking Mtembezi Blue.

Power and water are indeed a concern of mine; I have baked in plans for extra generators, flywheel UPSs and water tanks into all commercial and residential projects that I have in mind. I was considering building a datacenter, but I think I will wait until the telecom wars are over and internet access prices even out, all the fiber is laid, and AccessKenya has spent all its cash on fiber, and maybe buy them out and restructure their debt ;)

As far as the downsides like traffic, bribes, power outages, bad cars, street boys, etc... sounds like Los Angeles, which is where I'm from. And in true Los Angelino fashion, I'll probably open a record label and recording studio just for fun when I touchdown in Nai. Maybe KenyanLyrics can help with with running that and recruiting talent.

@AliBaba thanks for the tax tip. I hear that you don't mess around with the KRA... you pay them, and on time, so I'll keep that in mind when calculating my returns.

@KenyanLyrics, Fair question. I am a Negro/Colored/Black/African American...Acata Technology Executive. Now if you had asked me my tribe, I would have been offended ;)

jasonhill : you need to be real if you all that you would not have been coming here for our 2cts hire a consultant to do you your ground work in kenya .peace out

Well said man. Have gotten into trouble for saying Kenyans obsession with American products is partly driven by negative western media propaganda against anything Chinese. There may though be quality issues because of weaker import controls in Kenya. But a product is not poor quality simply because it is from China. And it is true that the best margins for BPO and IT businesses today are in Africa. Even India is seeing a rise in wages in the IT/BPO sector and does not have the advantage it used to. Then there are language issues. Thanks to relatively low cost and high speed internet, the possibilities in Kenya are limitless.

You have validated my point. You are an SAP consultant. As I said, that is technical, measurable, and doesn't need to necessarily be a full-time position while in the implementation phase. I still perform consulting work for Fortune 500 companies that need rock-solid, enterprise class solutions. I've done such work for IBM, CSC, Toshiba, Deloitte, and on and on, so I know where you are coming from.

But you are incorrect my friend, on hiring consultants for setting up and operating a business at my level in an organization. The type of work you are speaking of is nuts and bolts. When starting and running a business in which you are in charge and responsible at the 100,000 foot level, not just the 500 foot level, you can't outsource that job, or you are putting your destiny in the hands of an "outsider", and your business will likely fail. And, actually, most consultants are indeed quacks, as they have no allegiance to the company that they are consulting for, are only around for a short time, and are usually not properly managed- in fact many times are simply a band-aid for bad management that doesn't properly train, resource-plan, and invest in its own employees. I myself am a consultant, and I always tell my clients that there is nothing that they couldn't do for themselves if they groom and invest in their people and get them to where I am at.

And don't get me started on consultants from a certain country in South East Asia that will remain unnamed... I've never seen tens of millions of dollars wasted so fast... I've gotten very good contracts just coming in and cleaning up after those guys. And you being in IT in the states should know exactly what I'm talking about.

How does one use a consultant to meet people? To play a few rounds of golf at Karen CC? To wave at someone having lunch in the Sarova? There are things that you do must yourself. If you were born in Kenya, don't you wish someone could have told you the real story about the US before you went? I'm sure that most Kenyans in the diaspora wish a thousand times that someone would have told them the truth about the US, and how to navigate the system. So I want the same thing, from my friends and associates, before going to Kenya.

As far as getting on a plane and going, I have done that. And it led to many questions. Now, I am getting answers to those questions about the hows and whys of doing business in Kenya from all of the great people here at Wazua, as well as friends and associates here in the US in cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Kansas City, Atlanta, and even *gulp* Des Moines and Columbus. I am learning Kiswahili (from Tanzanians ;)). Even sheng from Eastlands BuruBuru Phase 4 folks. I am studying the politics, history, and business of Kenya. I know how to personally set up a business in Kenya without having to hire an attorney. I am meeting wonderful people here in the US before quitting my position, packing up all my stuff, and moving half way around the world. I would think that would be smarter than flying blind.

nicde thought boss. AcessKenya market cap is kes. 2.8b