Economic Growth Towards 2030 [Archive]

Kisumu Ndogo

July 10th, 2007, 07:38 AM

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Written by Zeddy Sambu
Nairobi City09-July-2007: Kenya has emerged among the top three countries in Africa with the best investment and innovation climates in a survey of business leaders during last month’s World Economic Forum in Cape Town.

Kenya came third after South Africa and Tunisia as the top three innovation climates in Africa.

However, it faired poorly in the global competitiveness index which was topped by Tunisia and South Africa with a score of 4.72 and 4.42 respectively. Kenya managed position 10 with a score of 3.62.

More than half of the business leaders surveyed cited corruption, poor infrastructure, limited access to credit and high taxes among factors impeding growth.

Others in the top ten were Mauritius, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Botswana and Namibia. Bureaucracy in Government , crime and theft, high inflation and tax regulations were other factors that dropped Kenya’s rating.

The survey was published at the World Economic Forum “Davos for Africa” meeting in Cape Town from 13 to 15 June. The ratings show that Kenya’s performance on most of these fronts has improved since 2003 when a similar study was done.

At that time, nearly 75 per cent of companies and entrepreneurs operating in Kenya cited unavailability and high cost of credit, corruption, crime, theft, disorder, high tax rates and anti competitive informal practices as hampering growth.

Many firms and entrepreneurs cited them as major and very severe constraints to a favourable investment climate, “ says the report in part.

Despite a steady upward trend in continental economic growth, Africa does not cut the mustard to attract significant research and development investment from industry.

It adds: “African statistics-gathering systems are set for an overhaul, with a continental fund and strategy to harmonize national frameworks due to emerge soon,” it says.

Both findings capture the perceptions of leading business executives from a cross-section of firms operating in African countries.In 2003 , Kenya was not ranked amongst the top 10 preferred destinations.

Of the 29 countries surveyed, Tunisia receives the most consistently high rating for its innovation capacity. It is the only country to register in the top three in all nine categories pertaining to science and technology.

South Africa however holds the number one spot in more categories. But the Southern giant and Kenya are let down by poor quality science education and a shortfall of scientists.

Kenya also falls short on Intellectual Property protection.

Northern Africa chalks up the highest scores in categories related to skills and human resources, while Sub-Saharan Africa does well on research quality and technology transfer, says a survey published at the World Economic Forum “Davos for Africa” meeting in Cape Town in June.

“Africa is doing well in basic areas of competitiveness but needs to focus more on technological readiness and market efficiency to really jump-start competitiveness,” said Jennifer Blanke, senior economist with the World Economic Forum and one of the authors of the competitiveness report.

The report compares Africa’s four largest economies—South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt(Sane) —to the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, suggesting the African countries have the potential to be the drivers of growth.

And the private division of Kenya’s policy think tank—the Kenya Institute for Policy Research and Analysis, Kippra predicts that Kenya has a lot of potential for both local and foreign investments.

Kisumu Ndogo

July 10th, 2007, 07:41 AM

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10-July-2007: Kenyans are the most enthusiastic on the formation of the East Africa Community and are highly supportive of the inclusion of Rwanda and Burundi into the trading bloc, a new opinion poll shows.

Results of a Steadman Group survey released last Friday, indicate that the levels of the EAC awareness were highest in Nairobi at 91 per cent of respondents while Tanzania and Uganda tied at 89 per cent.

Analysts have for long argued that Kenya stood to benefit more from EAC due to its higher economic growth rate, perhaps indicating the higher enthusiasm by Kenyans as depicted in the poll.

According to the poll, only nine percent of Kenyan respondents were opposed to the arrangement with only one per cent feeling less concerned.
A significant 46 per cent of Tanzanians, says the weekly EA Social, Political Economic and Cultural Barometer do not even favour the EAC despite talks of transforming the block into a fully fledged political federation.

The admission of Rwanda and Burundi into the EAC last month is expected to raise trade opportunities for the region opening the markets for traders who can now access more commodities like vast mineral resources in the region.

EAC, at an economic level of a Customs Union launched in 2005, aspires to woo investors and boost trade and competition in the region benefiting consumers in terms of lower prices and plans to launch a common market for its population of about 120 million by 2010.

But experts say differences in nationalism and poor infrastructure will however continue to curb the growth of the trading bloc. With the results of the exercise to collect public views on the fast tracking of the EAC federation in waiting, the poll shows a majority of Tanzanians would shoot down the idea as opposed to those in Kenya and Uganda.

And 50 per cent of them do not also support the recent decision by the heads of the state of the three countries to admit Rwanda and Burundi into EAC. The expansion of EAC is further expected to boost security and political stability in the region.

According to the poll on the popularity of the EAC conducted between last June and July, 16 per cent Ugandans do not favour the block while in Kenya, only 10 per cent don’t favour the EAC.

Steadman interviewed 500 adult household respondents for each of the countries’ capital cities.

Kisumu Ndogo

July 16th, 2007, 09:30 PM

[B][/B
East African Standard (Nairobi)

26 June 2007
Posted to the web 25 June 2007

Washington Gikunju
Nairobi

The Vision 2030 development strategy has been praised by Prof Michael Porter, a leading authority on competitive strategy from the Harvard Business School.

Speaking on Monday during a presentation to the National Economic and Social Council of Kenya, Prof Porter however warned that a lot still needed to be done to improve the country's competitiveness and image as an attractive destination for foreign investors.

"The vision 2030 is a step in the right direction but Kenya still has a long way to go," said Prof Porter.

Vision 2030 is a Government development strategy that is aimed at steering Kenya to a middle-income country by the year 2030.

It aims at fostering development based on three main pillars of economic, social and political advancement.

The council comprises of eminent persons from the Government and the private sector and provides a forum for giving expert advice to the Government on economic and social issues.

Porter said that though the Government had made significant social and economic progress in the last four years, the world economic environment has also been favourable and this was likely to change soon.

"The last four years have been good for the global economy but we can't assume that this will continue," said Porter, who has authored over 25 books.

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He advised that Kenya needed to expand its export sector, which currently accounts for only 0.03 per cent of the world's trade.

He also advised on the need to raise Kenya's per capita income, which currently stands at about $820 per annum to improve the living standards of ordinary Kenyans.

Porter's ideas on strategy are the foundation for the strategy course at the Harvard Business School, and his primary course for Harvard graduate students is a University-wide course that is taught at 56 other universities around the world.

Kisumu Ndogo

July 29th, 2007, 05:04 AM

I COULD NOT RESIST SENDING THIS PIECE VERY HILARIOUS

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nairoberry

July 29th, 2007, 06:38 AM

i am not bragging or being biased but i really do think that GADO is one of the best cartoonist in africa

Kisumu Ndogo

July 30th, 2007, 04:28 AM

I do not quite agree with you Nairoberry I think he is the best in Kenya so is Eastern Africa ( Ihave managed to browse through some regional papers) and guess...

kulani

July 31st, 2007, 02:58 AM

i am not bragging or being biased but i really do think that GADO is one of the best cartoonist in africa

I don't know much about him, but this one would definitely put him amongst the best in Africa. Zapiro is SA's most famous and popular cartoonist.

Kenguy

August 1st, 2007, 04:30 PM

Selling Vision 2030 an inspired idea

Daily Nation
Publication Date: 2007/08/01
The National Economic and Social Council has started a round of open meetings across the country on Vision 2030, the project to transform Kenya into a middle-income country.

The idea is to educate the citizenry on the project, exchange views and, ultimately, give the people a sense of ownership and participation.

We would say such public forums are coming rather late in the day. Vision 2030 is the most ambitious plan ever launched to transform this country. It aims to replicate the successes enjoyed by the “Asian Tigers”, countries that a generation ago were at the same level of under-development as Kenya, but have since knocked on the door of First World economic and technological development while we have stood still.

A project to propel Kenya to such heights cannot be owned by a few technocrats; it must be pushed by all who have a stake in this country. It is the people who will assess whether the country is on track with Vision 2030, and sound the alarm if they detect that development plans and spending priorities are going off the rails.

First, the people must fully understand what the project entails, and be persuaded to support it. They must be convinced that Vision 2030 is not some political project designed to win votes, but a long-term development goal for the benefit of all Kenyans that transcends partisan loyalties and the electoral cycle.

The people, therefore, must have been sold in the project from the very beginning, and not as an afterthought.

Better late than never. The economic and social council must now work overtime, and on a continuous basis, to sell Vision 2030. Even after the round of public hearings is over, there must be a mechanism in place to continuously brief the public and take suggestions.

After all, Vision 2030 is not some academic exercise. It must touch the lives of all from the policy-makers and implementers, the highest paid chief executives, the top technocrats and bureaucrats down to the jobless, the marginalised, the peasants, and all those whose lives stand to be most transformed by accelerated economic and social development.

Kisumu Ndogo

August 9th, 2007, 12:02 AM

City explores 24-hour operations --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Updated on August 9, 2007, 12:00 am
Focus on Koinange Street as Government considers transforming Nairobi into a 24-hour business hive, writes Millicent Muthoni.

Businesses on Koinange Street in Nairobi are gearing up to open round the clock as part of a Government strategy.

With support from the Nairobi City Council, the businessmen want to jump the gun on the Vision 2030 national strategy, which involves making the city a 24-hour business hive.

"Koinange Street is very strategic. It is self-contained and is already hosting 24-hour operations. The idea is to make it a full-fledged round-the-clock business street," says Mr Charles Asiba, a member of the Koinange Street Security and Business Association and a director of the Koinange Street Festival, a venture of the association.

Asiba is confident that the diversity of the street makes it a suitable pilot for the proposed 24-hour city, an ambitious objective under the vision 2030. The Vision 2030 proposes to develop Nairobi into a 21st -century City by the year 2030.

Authority to spearhead the regeneration

Contacted by Real Estate about the viability of Nairobi as a 24-hour city, the Director of Vision 2030, Dr Wahome Gakuru left no doubt as to the seriousness of the National Economic and Social Council in this endeavour.

"Nairobi is already a leading force in many sectors, and these are what we want to augment first. We intend to make Nairobi a regional services hub in tourism, hospitality, conferencing, transport, entertainment, financial and medical services," revealed Gakuru.

He said that a Nairobi Metropolitan Regional Management Authority would be formed to spearhead the regeneration and development of Nairobi into a competitive world-class city.

Drawing from other countries like Singapore that have urbanised steadily, Gakuru says that Nairobi will be developed by partnerships between the public and the private sector, emphasizing on the need for offering incentives to private players so that the Government acts as a facilitator.

"If we mobilise and manage resources between the two sectors, then donor funding will only corroborate our efforts," says Gakuru.

Nakumatt opened first ever 24-hour supermarket

Asiba thinks that Koinange Street lends itself to up-market commercial activities.

"It is an expensive street already, and we can take advantage of this to bring in exclusive brands for shopping," he suggests.

But are Kenyans ready for a populous, after-dark street and a vibrant night-life yet? Are Kenyan families ready to eat out and shop at night? Are restaurants, supermarkets, and shops ready to operate round the clock? Are there security concerns?

Nakumatt Holdings, as part of their expansion programme, last week opened the first ever 24-hour supermarket in Nairobi, the Nakumatt Ukay Branch in Westlands.

Making the announcement, Nakumatt’s Operations Director, Mr Thiagarajan Ramamurthy said the supermarket will maintain normal prices, and that security has been beefed

Can other businesses follow in these steps, or has the baby been born before its time?

Midnight walk down Koinange Street reveals a lot

A midnight walk down Koinange Street reveals a lot. The night tide has washed to sleep banks, coffee shops, shopping outlets, showrooms, restaurants, offices, pharmacies, colleges, and the City market.

It has with the same stroke brought to life the racket of revellers and churches goers alike.

Kengeles, Dolce and Florida pulsate with life, fundis knock about at a floodlit construction site, the petrol stations gush out fuel, guards keep watch, street vendors offer tea and condoms for night-runners, ATMs dispense cash, Christians supplicate and the police patrol vans prowl for street girls.

The street assumes a different character at night, but not for long.

Not if the proposal by the Koinange Street Security and Business Association bears fruit. The association is keen to see the street converted into a 24-hour business zone.

‘Structuring of our society does not support 24-hour operations’

Speaking at his Film Africa office at College House, Asiba says: "We have the University of Nairobi and Nairobi Safari Club at the butt end, dance halls, the only upmarket residential units in the CBD at Chester house, fitness centres, colleges, three petrol stations, banks and ATMs.

There are car showrooms and tyre fitting centres, churches, a telecoms centre, public toilets, and three of the best chemists. Just off the street is Nakumatt Lifestyle, Uchumi, Java coffee house, Intercontinental Hotel and the French, German and Kenya cultural centres," Asiba enumerates.

However, Mr F G Mungai, a former Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) chairman thinks that Nakummatt has overreached itself.

"It is a tall order because the structuring of our society does not support 24 hour operations. People work in the city and sleep in the residential areas. The city sleeps at night and the residences sleep during the day," he says.

There is a lot of money circulating

However, Mungai observes that the concept of 24-hour operations is not new to some specific businesses in Nairobi. "Take for instance Gikomba where business is layered to run 24 hours. The clothes and groceries wholesaler will be active between 3am and 7am, retail traders in the early morning hours while other businesses like hardware stores, pubs and restaurants join in during normal working hours until late in the night," says Mungai.

He observes that the reason many banks have latched onto this seemingly low-class area is because there is a lot of money circulating.

"ATMs are open and traders are constantly depositing their earnings," says Mungai.

Nairobi is a lay-over for many tourists, travellers and airline crews. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Wilson Airport and all major city hospitals operate 24 hours a day.

Asiba sees this as an opportunity for business, where those who are only here for a night can have a taste of the city in the 24-hour zones.

24-hour zones encourage a leisurely experience

The Koinange Street Carnival, held in Easter this year, was his and lawyer Duncan Mwanyumba’s brainchild.
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"We want an interactive street, and this was a sort of cleansing of the stigmatised street, so that people can feel comfortable walking on it without seeing it as a redlight district," says Asiba.

In the cards is a 24-hour chopping bonanza this Christmas season, with businesses being allowed to pitch on street exhibition spaces. Customers will be able to sit out in the open and eat or just shop and enjoy entertainment," insists Asiba.

A characteristic of 24-hour zones in cities around the world is that they are pedestrianised. They encourage a leisurely experience of the street by the pedestrian and keep vehicles to a minimum or out all together. They offer open spaces, outside sitting and landscaping features like fountains, monuments, street art and greenery.

Salient challenges that Nairobi would face

Formal businesses are able to spill over into the street, thus creating diverse experiences and allowing people to enjoy transitional spaces.

Asiba recommends the converting of Koinange Street into a one-way street, akin to Mama Ngina. "You can see how this has boosted businesses on Mama Ngina. Customers walk in when they are not rushing past your shop," says Asiba, emphasising the need for a profit-driven approach so that the city council does not place too many hurdles in rates on the path of businessmen.

The Director of City Planning at the City Hall, Mr Peter Kibinda, said that there is no decree necessary or penalty for businesses to run all night.

"What we as the Council are aiming at in the on-going pedestrianisation project is to create conducive environments for night-long business. After Mama Ngina street, we now are looking at Standard and Kaunda streets," he said.

As appealing as a 24-hour economy sounds, what with its ability to create new jobs and rake in more money, there are salient challenges that Nairobi would face if Nairobi took this direction.

Environmental-friendly development

Security would have to be revamped, with street lighting being installed to ease both enjoyment and surveillance of the street.

Residential areas will have to be created nearer to the working quarters, be it the suburbs or the Central Business District.

This will rationalise movement and accessibility.

The transport system as well needs straightening up to allow for increased and constant traffic.

Environmental-friendly development will take conscious planning and strict supervision form the city Council and the National Environment Agency (Nema).

The Chairman of the AAK Architects’ Chapter, Mr Wahome Wachira, is all for a 24-hour economy. The city, he says, is a heavy investment, and we need to wring it for value. "The buildings, services and business systems bring better returns when ran longer," he told real estate.

He however sees the need for an urban cultural change and a radical shift in our housing solutions. " Its time we embraced mixed-urban developments, where shops, offices and residential units sit together," says Wachira.

ernestombayo7

August 10th, 2007, 12:20 AM

Panasonic opens Nairobi office

Electronics manufacturer, Panasonic, has opened a branch in Kenya, as it prepares to launch a battle to capture market share from the likes of Sony, Samsung, LG and JVC.

The five brands dominate the top tier market for high definition televisions (HDTVs) and video cameras.

Panasonic’s new offices at International Life House in the City will distribute the firm’s entire range of electronic household gadgets, although it seeks to initially promote its newer entrants, including a 103-inch plasma display television, home theatres and video cameras. “Recent consumer buying behaviour and our market research suggests that Kenya is going to be a key market for us in the coming years,” said the company’s managing director for the Gulf and Middle East, Mr Seiji Koyanagi.

The company is still drawing up its relaunch programme, but promised to establishing an efficient distribution network to ensure its products are available across the country.

However, it says counterfeits are its biggest challenge. “Safety of customers is at risk due to lack of awareness between genuine and fake products,” said the managing director.

usersky0010

August 15th, 2007, 02:08 AM

kryton

Kisumu Ndogo

August 17th, 2007, 03:09 AM

Angola is the just about the 6th largest economy in Africa (GDP Terms) I know it still low in (Human Development Index) and accordingly Equatorial Guinea is among the world's top 5 Nations in personal incomes.I wonder wether it is right to classify them under this category esp with the fact that there is no war going on in these countries.

chui

August 17th, 2007, 03:50 PM

Here is your answer Kisumu ndogo

NEWS EXTRA

Africa Insight: How faulty lists fail African States

Publication Date: 8/17/2007
Because of flawed methodologies or sheer ignorance, the Failed State Index names robust states, such as Kenya and Sudan as failing which is far from the truth

Hardly a picture of a failed state: Nairobi’s skyline
The world has become addicted to lists and rankings, and as more information flows around the world via the internet, mobile phones and satellites, we always revert back to the Guinness Book of World Records way of making sense of the world beyond our borders.

Naturally, the greater the amount of information available the greater the confusion, hence people look to rankings and lists as the most convenient and most simple way of overcoming difficulties created by too much information.

From the World Bank’s yearly Doing Business Survey to Reporters San Frontieres Press Freedom Index and the influential Corruption Perception Index compiled by Transparency International, we seem to think that once a simplified list is produced, problems and challenges begin to solve themselves.

If the initial ranking or list does not somehow “magically” solve the problems then we can create even more lists and rankings and hope one of them will be a catalyst for change.

One of the newest members of the “ranking industry” is the Failed States Index (FSI) compiled by Foreign Policy Magazine (FPM) and The Fund for Peace (FP). In July 2007, the third instalment of the FSI was released. Information from 12,000 publicly available sources on 177 countries was synthesized into a ranking out of 120 points per country (the less points the better) based on 12 indicators, which is an impressive simplification.

Guinea-Bissau v/s Kenya
The 12 indicators used to compile the FSI were, demographic pressure (I-1); refugees and humanitarian crises (I-2); legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance (I-3); human flight (I-4); uneven economic development (I-5); severe economic decline (I-6); criminalisation of the state (I-7); deterioration of public services (I-7); suspension of the rule of law (I-9); Security operating as a state within a state (I-10); rise of factionalised elites (I-11) and intervention of other states (I-12).

Not to fall into the trap of debating positions on the FSI, one has to wonder how FPM and FP came up with enough information about Guinea-Bissau to suggest that it is less of a failed state then Kenya. Kenya ranked 31 and Guinea-Bissau ranked 38 with 92.2 points and 88.8 points respectively. To anyone with any remote knowledge about Africa, to suggest that Guinea-Bissau has greater state capacity then Kenya is almost laughable.

Of the 12,000 public sources used in FSI, there was mostly likely more information available about Kenya. Kenya is a key partner in the US “war on terror” in East Africa, hence it attracts more media attention than Guinea-Bissau. Kenya has a thriving financial industry and is an attractive destination for foreign investment in East Africa, hence it attracts more attention then Guinea-Bissau. Kenya also has a thriving political scene supported by and even more vibrant free press, which facilitates a healthy flow of “good” and “bad” information.

This is not to suggest that Kenya does not face its own unique set of challenges, but a simplified list deserves a simplified response. Kenya can be understood as being more of a failed state because the average person has ample amount of opportunities, via newspapers, the internet, TV and magazines to critically assess events in Kenya, whereas to be perfectly honest, few people, even in Africa, care to take time or have the ability to gather enough information to constructively assess Guinea Bissau. “Ignorance is bliss” and such “bliss” is what led to the FSI ranking Guinea-Bissau above Kenya.

A complex affair

The state as a mechanism for enhancing public good has disappeared, but just because a regime is not using its sovereign power for public benefit, does not mean that it is failing. There is a difference between state capacity for doing good and state capacity for control. The former is what we want or expect a government to do and the latter is what the government may actually be doing, therefore the concept of a weak or a failing state is more complex than a simple number can project.

It may be more helpful in many cases in Africa to create two parallel lists: The Failed States Index and a Regime Power Index so the we can get a better understanding of the parallel power structures that enable the survival of the Mugabes, the El Bashirs, the Nguemas, the Debys, and Bongos of Africa, long after the State, as a public good, has collapsed.

Ratings work very well for inanimate consumer products such as television, mobile phones, computers and cars, but it is inherently more difficult to successfully rank sovereign entities infused with political intricacies. Rankings will only become more popular as we descend deeper into world characterised by information overload, but we must remember that lists will always be biased. If we are to continue to search for a list that will be a catalyst for change we must strive to achieve objective analysis and address the issue of subjectivity and only then will more realistic rankings and lists be of assistance in addressing Africa’s challenges.

Mark Sorbara is an African scholar based in Canada.
Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Network Project.

Ironhide

August 23rd, 2007, 01:02 PM

i am not bragging or being biased but i really do think that GADO is one of the best cartoonist in africa

Spot on man. he definitely is.

Kenguy

August 29th, 2007, 01:55 PM

Banks crucial in realising Vision 2030, says Kimunya
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Source: The Standard
Date: 29/8/2007
By Vincent Moracha

The financial services sector is expected to play a key role in the realisation of Vision 2030, Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya has said.

Kimunya, however, asked the institutions to make it possible for more Kenyans to operate accounts and transact business through banks.

He said the Government would continue to improve the business operating environment through a number of incentives.

"We are facilitators and there is no turning back. The Government is embracing ICT, giving out subsidies besides other mechanisms to bring down the cost of doing business in the country," he said.

He asked financial institutions to not only embrace the latest technology, but also support investments in the information technology sector.

"The internet is gradually reshaping the banking industry. The completion of laying the fibre optic technology in the country would revolutionise the sector," said Kimunya.

Citing the example of the Nairobi Stock Exchange, Kimunya said, the bourse was far ahead of the banking sector in terms of technology and was now at par with other market powerhouses like the New York Stock Exchange.

The minister was addressing chief executives of different banks on "ICT, Banks and Vision 2030" yesterday at a Nairobi hotel.

Treasury PS Mr Joseph Kinyua said tourism, agriculture, trade, business processing opportunities and financial services would play a pivotal role towards the attainment of the Vision 2030 goals.

Information and Communication PS Dr Bitange Ndemo said the process of laying the fibre optic technology was on course. He said investors had pitched camp in the country to embark on supply of ICT services once the cable laying process is complete.

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nai guy

August 30th, 2007, 05:37 AM

..
Plans for three resort cities Last Updated on August 30, 2007, 12:00 am

By Al Abdi

The Government is planning to develop three resort cities in the next five years in a project aimed at making Kenya among the top tourist destinations in the world.

The establishment of the three resort cities-two at the Coast and the other in Isiolo is classified as tourism’s flagship project to be completed by 2012.

At the coast, one will be located at the North Coast while the second one will be at the South Coast. The third in Isiolo District will be located just on the outskirts of Isiolo town.

The move is part of the Government’s all-encompassing national development plan, Vision 2030, which is envisaged to put Kenya at par with the Asian Tiger countries like Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Vision 2030 is national long-term growth plan that aims at transforming Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous nation, offering a high quality of life for all its citizens, by 2030.

Last week, a high-powered delegation led by Permanent secretaries Mr Mohamed Mahamud (Roads), Mr Zachary Mwaura (Defence) and Dr Hukka Wario (PS, East African Community) said in Isiolo the Government will make tourism as its cornerstone for development.

"Tourism will be the leading sector in achieving the goals of the vision where it is aimed that the country will be among the 10 long haul tourist destination in the world, offering a high-end, diverse and distinctive visitor experience that few of her competitors can offer,’’ reads part of the policy document.

Scenery that rivals Hollywood

The Government has already opened discussions on the project with the Isiolo County Council. About 1, 000 hectares needs to be allocated for the resort project.

The Permanent Secretaries, who were accompanied by experts from the various ministries who helped develop the policy document, said Kenya aims to beat South Africa, Egypt and Morocco in tourist arrivals in the next five years.

In the Vision, the Government plans to focus on three specific areas to achieve the goals for 2012;

• to quadruple tourism’s GDP contribution to over Ksh80 billion;

• to raise international visitors from 1.8 million in 2006 to three million in 2012 while raising average spend per visitor from the current Sh40,000 to at least Sh70,000 and;

• to increase hotel beds from 40,000 to about 65,000, combined with an emphasis on high quality service.

Developed on the model of South Africa’s Sun City, each of the resort cities in Kenya will be allocated enough hectares of land to enable the facilities have casinos, golf courses, restaurants and discotheques among other features.

The delegation said Isiolo, as part of Kenya’s safari destination, was picked because of the fame acquired by Shaba Game Reserve that had attracted filmmakers from across the globe. ‘’It is Joy and George Adamson who made Shaba famous. As a result, many major films have been shot here. We have a scenery that rivals Hollywood right here,’’ said PS Wario.

The Adamsons reared lions starting with lioness Elsa and later released them into the wild. While Joy died at Shaba, her husband was killed at neighbouring Kora National Reserve.

Movies shot at Shaba over the last two decades include Born Free, Out Of Africa, To Walk with Lions and CBS TV blockbuster series, Survivor Africa.

The Government now plans to develop the infrastructure in the northern circuit starting with the upgrading of the Isiolo-Moyale highway to bitumen standards.

Mohamud said the construction of the first 136km between Isiolo town and Merille River will start in October. The tendering process having been finalised.

"The first phase will start in about two months. We have Sh4 billion for the project and we are at the moment waiting for no-objection on tender valuation from the bank (Africa Development Bank),’’ said the PS in charge of Roads.

The Permanent Secretaries reiterated the Government’s commitment to set up another international airport that also targets the tourism sector apart from transportation of miraa and horticultural products from the Mt Kenya region.

Isiolo District, measuring about 26,000 square kilometres, is sparsely populated with about 150,000 people. About 60 per cent of the population resides in Central division, an area measuring about 1, 500 sq km.

The value of land in the district has been low, but it had picked up in the last three years in Isiolo Town, where a plot measuring 50 by 100 feet goes for an average of Sh1 million.

Given its central geographical position in the country and the Government’s plan to set up a city resort on the outskirt of the town, value of land is expected to rise steadily.

Many parks dormant

Already, scramble for land especially in Central division has started in earnest with local leaders led by Isiolo North MP, Dr Mohamed Abdi Kuti, who is also the minister for Youth Affairs, appealing to the locals not to sell their land to ‘outsiders’.

The second flagship project will be to increase the country’s premium safari parks and the extension of facilities in other either under-utilised or dormant parks with a view to achieving higher tourist revenue yields.

The current premium parks to date include the world famous Maasai Mara National Reserve and the Kenya Wildlife managed Lake Nakuru National Park that are both becoming congested.

Under-utilised parks like Mt Marsabit and Ruma parks will benefit from improved infrastructure and better marketing here and abroad, aimed at bringing in more visitors.

"So many parks are either dormant or under-utilised. We want to revive the dormant ones and do an aggressive marketing both locally and abroad in order to attract tourists,’’ said the PS.

Most idle parks are in the northern circuit that include Rahole, Kitui, Bisanadi, Sibiloi, and Kora but with abundant and rare wildlife and other attractions.

In the development of tourism plans is the business visitors’ initiative that envisages to attract investors to set up of five more international class hotels in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. Isiolo will be leveraged as a new high-end tourist destination in that period.

Under the niche products initiative, the Vision 2030 States that if undertaken, it will provide about 3,000 high cost bed accommodation for tourists interested in cultural and eco-tourism cum water-based sports especially around Lake Victoria.

The other item on the menu is the certification of 1,000 home-stay sites to promote cultural tourism in Kenyan homes where locals will exhibit their traditions.

Kenguy

August 30th, 2007, 12:25 PM

^^
I just love the idea. Though their choice of Isiolo is really surprising. Come to think of it, its the best way to open up the marginalised northern part of Kenya.:banana:

nai guy

August 31st, 2007, 03:38 AM

Town earmarked for Sh70bn ICT hub

Story by JOSEPH BONYO
Publication Date: 8/31/2007

Athi River town will host Kenya’s first ever ICT hub, according to plans by the Government, an idea bolstered by the increasing numbers of foreign companies that want to set up shop here. Two international firms from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have already expressed interest in setting up the hubs in partnership with the government.

A lady uses a computer.Athi River Town could become Kenya's silicon valley. PHOTO/FILE
“An MoU is in place at the Attorney General’s Office. He will advise us further on how to proceed with the plans legally,” said Information and Communication Permanent secretary, Bitange Ndemo.

Proposals on cost and other documents, have been sent by the Kenyan government to the companies for their assessment and approval. Once approved, two multimedia firms, Agility of Kuwait and a consortium of companies from the United Arab Emirates will work with the Government to build create the hub at a cost of Sh70 billion.

Addressing an ICT workshop organised by the AccessKenya Group for government officials at a Nairobi hotel, Dr Ndemo said that the platform would greatly improve efficiency in the Government sector as well as cut down on the costs of operations.

In achieving this, the Government has also identified four key areas that will help the ICT industry develop in tune with Vision 2030. “The areas are meant to fast track the development of ICT in the country, and create an enabling environment to participants in the industry,” said Dr. Ndemo. They include tax incentives that will see a reduction of the income tax levied on expatriates and key employees, corporate tax holidays and VAT exemption on locally purchased inputs for the sector.

The Government will also speed up laying of the national fibre-optic backbone and the undersea fibre-optic cable network. In addition, the current energy grid of 1000 mega watts will be increased to 3000 MW in a few years.

Costs of bandwidth available to public universities will be subsidised, while specific training on ICT will be available at the Government-owned Kenya College of Communications Technology (KCCT) in Mbagathi, Nairobi.

Public primary schools will also get aid to buy computer

Heres another version

Kenya build Sh67bn digital city
Written by Kui Kinyanjui

31-August-2007: The governments of Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have entered into a Sh67 billion partnership to establish East Africa’s first digital city.

Athi River town on the outskirts of Nairobi has been earmarked for the project that will be modelled on the successes of Dubai Internet City.

The initiative is expected to create new jobs as major corporations set up base and use local resources to conduct their business.

Besides, proponents of the project say it will position the country as a regional base for manufacture and development of ICT products.

“Kenya has seen an increasing number of foreign ICT companies set up offices in Nairobi that they intend to use as entry points to the regional market,” Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, said.

The partnership for the project was formed at the request of the UAE government and has seen the two governments draft a memorandum of understanding that is currently before the Attorney-General. Two Middle Eastern companies have expressed interest in undertaking the project.

“There is significant demand. Companies have already approached us looking for incentives or joint partnership opportunities to start operations in Athi River,” said Dr Ndemo.

In the last few years, several companies have opened regional bases in the country, including Microsoft, Nokia, HP, Ericcson and Cisco, all of whom have all cited the region’s relevance as the biggest emerging market for ICT products .

Athi River —located just 50 kilometres from Nairobi City Centre — is currently a hub for several industries, including cement firms, manufacturing concerns and is home to an export processing zone (EPZ).

It’s conversion into a fully fledged ICT city could transform the dusty town into the main industrial base of the country.

However, the proposed digital city will face challenges that reflect the wider needs of the country as it increasingly relies on the ICT industry to drive economic growth, which according to a recent African Development Bank report, is expected to reach its highest levels in 20 years driven by the new sector.

Those challenges include an acute shortage of trained IT workers and inadequate infrastructure.

In response to that need and the development of other ICT driven industries such as the business process outsourcing sector, the government plans to heavily invest in beefing up the country’s infrastructure to increase access to internet-related services.

It also aims to increase of technology content in the school curriculum and is currently offering subsidized bandwith to universities to encourage e-learning.

Kisumu Ndogo

August 31st, 2007, 06:33 PM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/350816052_0a392a0d28_o.jpg

South Africa = Winsconsin
Nigeria = Hawaii
Maine = Morrocco
West Virginia = Algeria lol

Matthias Offodile

August 31st, 2007, 08:11 PM

That map there is stupid, wait till China arises, it will take time but once the dragon roars, the US is history!

China is the only nation that can bring the US down and the day will come, it is simply inevitable! Even America´s vicious planting of the SARS virus in Asia won´t deter China from rising!

Kisumu Ndogo

August 31st, 2007, 08:58 PM

Easy Offodile it is still their turn to rule the world(They have come along way mark you). Africa really needs to rise and Nigeria(West) S Africa(South) Egypt, Algeria, Morrocco & Kenya, Sudan(East) needs to charge the way. (Courtesy Wikipaedia)

GDP
USA = 13 tr $ (2006) 5% world population 30% world wealth
CHINA = 2.6 tr (2006)
EU = 15.7 tr $ (2007)
AFRICA = 3 tr $ Est.

Matthias Offodile

August 31st, 2007, 09:07 PM

.. We have a long way to go
Easy Offodile it is still their turn to rule the world(They have come along way mark you). Africa really needs to rise and Nigeria(West) S Africa(South) Egypt, Algeria, Morrocco & Kenya, Sudan(East) needs to charge the way. (Courtesy Wikipaedia)

GDP
USA = 13 tr $ (2006) 5% world population 30% world wealth
CHINA = 2.6 tr (2006)
EU = 15.7 tr $ (2007)
AFRICA = 3 tr $ Est.

ahah, only one nation in the Western Africa and only one in the Southern Africa? :ohno:

ernestombayo7

August 31st, 2007, 11:46 PM

Matthias Offodile

September 1st, 2007, 12:08 AM

Intresting,USA GDP is 4 times larger than all of Africa combined and atleast 6 times bigger than China.

Well take out the trillions Gulf and Japanese money invested there and let´s see how big it is then!

The fact is that China sits on a hell lot of cash and it is growing at a speedy rate, everybody laughed at China fifteen years back, now they earn increasing respect, let´s see who is really big in 20 years time, China´s foreign exchange resserves are steadily growing silently in the meantime.

The future will tell.....LOL

Kenguy

September 1st, 2007, 11:29 AM

Well take out the trillions Gulf and Japanese money invested there and let´s see how big it is then!

The fact is that China sits on a hell lot of cash and it is growing at a speedy rate, everybody laughed at China fifteen years back, now they earn increasing respect, let´s see who is really big in 20 years time, China´s foreign exchange resserves are steadily growing silently in the meantime.

The future will tell.....LOL

All the same, it will take ages for China to take over from the U.S., and I dont think those states mentioned and other parties with a stake in the U.S. economy will ever take their money out of the U.S. unless something major happens.

Matthias Offodile

September 1st, 2007, 11:47 AM

All the same, it will take ages for China to take over from the U.S., and I dont think those states mentioned and other parties with a stake in the U.S. economy will ever take their money out of the U.S. unless something major happens.

Only time will tell, the Romans, the Greek, the Portuguese all were world powers once...empires can tumble down very quickly, once the stone has been set in motion. History has taught us the lessons and the height of America´s days as the only superpower are counted and (very) slowly drawing to a close. Nobody can stop time not even Almighty USA. :)

nairoberry

September 4th, 2007, 09:16 PM

New system launched to monitor public spending
Written by Jim Onyango

Photo by: Liz MuthoniPlanning minister Henry Obwocha said NIMES will be highly integrated with other government systems to inform the public and policy makers on achievements made.

05-September-2007: A new system that tracks down government expenditure to guard against misuse of public funds has been launched.

This is the first time in Kenya’s history that the government will use a data gathering and evaluation system to ensure that public funds are channelled to the right projects.

The private sector yesterday praised the government for developing the system. Mr Mike Eldon, a member of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, said Kenyans will now take keen interest in monitoring government policies.

“The government has been a talk shop producing excellent policies which are never implemented, but this new system will now tell us what has been achieved” said Eldon.

The National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) launched by Ministry of Planning and National Development yesterday will also enhance transparency in the use of public funds as it will monitor and inform Kenyans on the implementation of projects worth over one million shillings.

“This system is designed at measuring effectiveness of public policy” said Planning and National Development Minister Henry Obwocha.

The ministry of planning and National Development was mandated to develop and implement the system as part of tgovernance reforms.

It was mooted in 2004 as the basis for measuring the performance at the ministerial and individual level, through the performance contracting and performance appraisal systems.

The system was also mandated to provide regular annual progress reports on public expenditure reviews.

The minister said NIMES will be highly integrated with other government systems to inform the public and policy makers on achievements made in areas such as performance contracting and performance appraisal.

The government considers it a versatile and flexible monitoring and evaluation system that will expand its scope and detail in time to satisfy Kenyans’ quest for information and accountability by holders of public office.

The framework of the system is designed to track the progress on all development projects undertaken by the government, civil society, private sector and donor partners.

“This is a truly unique system in that it will bring together stockholders from all sectors of the economy such as communities, implementers, civil society organizations, private sector and development partners to provide reports on their achievements and challenges with a view to improving performance” said Obwocha.

“The experience of producing monitoring and evaluation reports has changed the mind set of Kenyans and the culture of monitoring and evaluation is beginning to take root” said Obwocha.

popa1980

September 6th, 2007, 08:19 PM

Kenguy

September 6th, 2007, 08:41 PM

My bet is on Kenya to be the first SS African country to regularly hit the 8-10% growth rates and not dependent on oil (I wouldnt inculde countries like Mozambique since it is still in its post-war recovery phase).
^^
Im sure this will happen quite soon if you look at the trend in the past 5 years. The country is still undergoing a recovery period from the economic plunder of the past regime. Once all the infrastructure that crumbled has been rebuilt and improved and the business, agricultural and industrial climate reaches its peak, Kenya will consistently hit those growth rates.

ewangai

September 6th, 2007, 08:49 PM

^^
Im sure this will happen quite soon if you look at the trend in the past 5 years. The country is still undergoing a recovery period from the economic plunder of the past regime. Once all the infrastructure that crumbled has been rebuilt and improved and the business, agricultural and industrial climate reaches its peak, Kenya will consistently hit those growth rates.

with the investors pouring into kenya and the diaspora sending money home to start businesses, i believe we can hit 10% within the next 5 years. I also believe that politics will play a smaller part in the economy the more it grows and the more kenyans get educated.

Adams3

September 6th, 2007, 09:26 PM

All the same, it will take ages for China to take over from the U.S., and I dont think those states mentioned and other parties with a stake in the U.S. economy will ever take their money out of the U.S. unless something major happens.

You are absolutely wrong I think. I tell you why. In 2006, China's GDP was 2670 billion dollars or 21090 billion yuan. With an annual average economic growth of 8,5% over the next 14 years, and an average annual inflation deflator of 3,5%, GDP in 2020 will be 103000 billion yuan. An average annual yuan appreciation of 5% against the US dollar in the period to 2020 would mean one US dollar costs 3,80 yuan in 2020. Is that unrealistic? IMO, no. 103000 bn divided by 3,8 gives a GDP of about 27000 bn US dollars in 2020. However, GDP in purchasing parity would be 43000 bn US dollars, substantially higher. As Chinese GDP grows, GDP in nominal terms approaches PPP. There are no rich country today where US dollar GDP in nominal terms is much smaller than GDP at PPP. Even some poor countries, have a nominal GDP quite close to PPP, like Turkey and Brazil, where GDP by PPP is less than twice as big as GDP in nominal terms. China's GDP by PPP is four times as big, meaning there's plenty of room for converging.

My prediction is that Western Europe (Germany, UK, France primarily) would have a GDP per capita in PPP (in 2020 prices) of slightly below 60 000 in 2020, while China would have 31000 in the abovementioned calculations. So China would have about 55% of the GDP per capita in WE. If we look at the situation today, we see that the countries with 55 % of WE's living standard have a nominal GDP more than half of the GDP by PPP, in line with my China 2020 prediction, the exception is Argentina but that's a special case. My prediction would mean that China in 2020 will have the same living standards (measured by GDP (PPP) per capita) as South Korea had in 2005. South Korea had about 300 vehicles for every 1000 people in 2005. Applied for China, it would mean 420 million vehicles (cars, buses, trucks) on Chinese roads in 2020. America would have about 270 million...

My US GDP growth forecast for the 2006-2020 period is 3% average annual growth and 2,6% inflation (GDP deflator). 3% might be slightly optimistic for the US economy, given the retiring of the baby boomers, but I expect a slight pickup in productivity growth and 3% GDP growth has been the average over the last 35 or so years in America. America is behind schedule though, with economic growth at around 2% this year and the outlook for the coming years is sub-3% growth.

So, is it unrealistic to expect 8,5% average annual growth in China in the 2006-2020 period? It would mean a slowdown of growth from the period since reforms began in 1979, which is natural given the maturing of the economy. Last year growth was 11,1%, and this year will be another year of 11%+ growth, so it's ahead of schedule. Naturally, I predict a stronger growth in the first years of the period, while growth gradually declines over the time period, approaching 7% close to 2020. I don't think 8,5 % is too optimistic.

One factor that hasn't been discussed is the informal economy in China which is excluded from the offical statistics and which many agree is still bigger than in rich countries. The undercalculation of the service sector and the size of the informal economy could well add 10% to the size of the chinese economy, reflecting the real size much better. That would mean the Chinese economy will become larger than America's sooner than 2020, but 2020 is regardless of the informal economy a time when the Chinese economy will match the size of America. I don't think that's far into the future.

Adams3

September 6th, 2007, 09:45 PM

My bet is on Kenya to be the first SS African country to regularly hit the 8-10% growth rates and not dependent on oil (I wouldnt inculde countries like Mozambique since it is still in its post-war recovery phase).

Of course, we must not forget that Botswana for a long period had those growth rates as one of the fastest growing economies in the world since independence. But yes, I think Kenya is a good bet for that, although I think it's slightly unfair to Mozamique since it has grown very fast for 15 straight years now. Other candidates are of course Ghana and Tanzania.

ewangai

September 7th, 2007, 06:35 PM

You are absolutely wrong I think. I tell you why. In 2006, China's GDP was 2670 billion dollars or 21090 billion yuan. With an annual average economic growth of 8,5% over the next 14 years, and an average annual inflation deflator of 3,5%, GDP in 2020 will be 103000 billion yuan. An average annual yuan appreciation of 5% against the US dollar in the period to 2020 would mean one US dollar costs 3,80 yuan in 2020. Is that unrealistic? IMO, no. 103000 bn divided by 3,8 gives a GDP of about 27000 bn US dollars in 2020. However, GDP in purchasing parity would be 43000 bn US dollars, substantially higher. As Chinese GDP grows, GDP in nominal terms approaches PPP. There are no rich country today where US dollar GDP in nominal terms is much smaller than GDP at PPP. Even some poor countries, have a nominal GDP quite close to PPP, like Turkey and Brazil, where GDP by PPP is less than twice as big as GDP in nominal terms. China's GDP by PPP is four times as big, meaning there's plenty of room for converging.

My prediction is that Western Europe (Germany, UK, France primarily) would have a GDP per capita in PPP (in 2020 prices) of slightly below 60 000 in 2020, while China would have 31000 in the abovementioned calculations. So China would have about 55% of the GDP per capita in WE. If we look at the situation today, we see that the countries with 55 % of WE's living standard have a nominal GDP more than half of the GDP by PPP, in line with my China 2020 prediction, the exception is Argentina but that's a special case. My prediction would mean that China in 2020 will have the same living standards (measured by GDP (PPP) per capita) as South Korea had in 2005. South Korea had about 300 vehicles for every 1000 people in 2005. Applied for China, it would mean 420 million vehicles (cars, buses, trucks) on Chinese roads in 2020. America would have about 270 million...

My US GDP growth forecast for the 2006-2020 period is 3% average annual growth and 2,6% inflation (GDP deflator). 3% might be slightly optimistic for the US economy, given the retiring of the baby boomers, but I expect a slight pickup in productivity growth and 3% GDP growth has been the average over the last 35 or so years in America. America is behind schedule though, with economic growth at around 2% this year and the outlook for the coming years is sub-3% growth.

So, is it unrealistic to expect 8,5% average annual growth in China in the 2006-2020 period? It would mean a slowdown of growth from the period since reforms began in 1979, which is natural given the maturing of the economy. Last year growth was 11,1%, and this year will be another year of 11%+ growth, so it's ahead of schedule. Naturally, I predict a stronger growth in the first years of the period, while growth gradually declines over the time period, approaching 7% close to 2020. I don't think 8,5 % is too optimistic.

One factor that hasn't been discussed is the informal economy in China which is excluded from the offical statistics and which many agree is still bigger than in rich countries. The undercalculation of the service sector and the size of the informal economy could well add 10% to the size of the chinese economy, reflecting the real size much better. That would mean the Chinese economy will become larger than America's sooner than 2020, but 2020 is regardless of the informal economy a time when the Chinese economy will match the size of America. I don't think that's far into the future.

Well explained, but i do think that politics might come into play at some point in china. I think they will have to addapt democracy the more richer they become. this will come as a bit of ashock to policy makers and might slow them down for a while. Imagine a trade union representing 3 million workers demanding doubble pay rise or they dawn their tools. How they handle this transition will be a very interesting watch. thats the only place that i think India have an edge over china as they allready have a vibrant Democracy based Economy. that means things take a while longer to get approved dues to the democracy - beureaucracy marriage of convenience. we might see a similar thing to what happened to south Korea. Im not dissagreeing with you. all im saying is that this might delay things a bit and stop the money held by foreigners in US from coming over to china.

Whatever happens. China's Development will be agood help for africa as they seem keen on our resourses.

Kenguy

September 8th, 2007, 10:42 AM

Of course, we must not forget that Botswana for a long period had those growth rates as one of the fastest growing economies in the world since independence. But yes, I think Kenya is a good bet for that, although I think it's slightly unfair to Mozamique since it has grown very fast for 15 straight years now. Other candidates are of course Ghana and Tanzania.

^^
All the countries mentioned all have a chance at accelerated growth rates. But they all have one thing in common. They are resource rich countries apart from maybe Mozambique-Botswana with its diamonds, Tanzania with Natural gas, gold, coal, tanzanite; Ghana with gold and now oil. Kenya doesn't have a very strong mining sector and will have to rely on improving other sectors to achieve growth-that means alot of industry, commerce, services and agricultural output.

Alex Roney

September 8th, 2007, 01:28 PM

ernestombayo7

September 8th, 2007, 03:56 PM

ernestombayo7

September 8th, 2007, 03:57 PM

Mayor wants new political city

Story by NATION Correspondents
Publication Date: 9/7/2007

A proposal to build a new political capital for Kenya has received the full backing of city mayor Dick Wathika.

Saying this would speed up development, Mr Wathika added that moving administrative offices to a separate location would create room for the expansion of Nairobi as a commercial city.

The mayor spoke in his office yesterday after he received an invitation from the Rotary Club members to attend its forthcoming African Conference.

“I fully support moving the administrative offices to a new capital city and maintain Nairobi as a commercial city because it’s already too congested,” he said.

But the new capital should be far away from Nairobi but in a spacious location to accommodate expansion.

“It should not be too close to the commercial city so that we can have serious activities in two major capitals,” the mayor said.

He proposed that Parliament be the first to be moved to the administrative city once it has been identified and named. This, he explained, would encourage other administrative offices to move to the new capital.

Creating a new capital would require expansion of infrastructure and should therefore be well planned, Mr Wathika said.

Kenguy

September 8th, 2007, 08:29 PM

My issue with Kenyan growth is where does the all the money go into? Nairobi. I was in Kenya this past summer, and the amount of money, investments and just overall capital is incredibly disproportionate. Looking at Nairobi alone, it isn't that different from say Johannesbourg. Problem is other than Mombasa which is a tourist town, smaller towns and villages recieve practically nothing in proportion to the capital. I do believe that the economic package of unveiled in late 2006 to grow an average of 10% through to 2030 is an ambitious but realistic goal. Kenya has the fundamentals to do it, I just hope Kibaki or whoever wins this year's elections spread's Kenya's success outside of Nairobi.

Kenya is a great country, and I'll be following the elections closely come this December.

Btw what kind of a retard would want the U.S economy to go down? Does anyone actually know that this is a globalized world that we live in and if the U.S, the world's largest economy goes into recession what that spells out for the rest of us? It's both in China's and the U.S's best interest for both to succeed and grow, their respective economies compliment each other.

Great map, Brasil - N.Y? I can live with that...
^^
Alex, remember that Kenya is emerging from about a quarter century of decline. Add this to the fact that both the Kenyatta and the Moi regimes since independence believed in a policy of ruling the country by patronage.

First, they centralized everything in Nairobi, (Moi tried to some extent to shift the centre of power to his hometown of Eldoret but it wasn't very effective) believing that the country would be easier to govern that way. During the Moi regime, Kenya's transport and communications infrastructure almost completely fell apart. It was therefore not easy to travel or communicate between various corners of the country and that stunted development in very many areas outside Nairobi.

Second they used another tactic of what I would call "developmental rewards for support". They singled out areas where they had massive support and developed this regions and sidelined areas that were largely opposition zones or that had communities that did not have the population numbers nor political clout to have any effect on the governments of the day.

Obviously, the results are there for all to see-A vibrant, modern capital surrounded by pockets of fairly well off regions (in developmental terms which mostly happen to be the highlands and urban areas) and vast areas with marked poverty where the marginalized communities live today.

However, for the first time in Kenya's history, there is more administrative and economic decentralization with communities charting their developmental paths according to their needs. All the money isn't now going into Nairobi but into rebuilding and improving our battered infrastructure, providing education, healthcare, power e.t.c. to Kenyans who havent seen these basics for nearly a quarter of a century or more. I

Its just been around 4 years since real reforms have began taking place and it will take some time before most of Kenya is uplifted from poverty and the effects of all those years of plundering and mismanagement, but by the look of things, give the country at least 10-20 years from now. Im sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

Alex Roney

September 9th, 2007, 01:10 PM

^^
Alex, remember that Kenya is emerging from about a quarter century of decline. Add this to the fact that both the Kenyatta and the Moi regimes since independence believed in a policy of ruling the country by patronage.

First, they centralized everything in Nairobi, (Moi tried to some extent to shift the centre of power to his hometown of Eldoret but it wasn't very effective) believing that the country would be easier to govern that way. During the Moi regime, Kenya's transport and communications infrastructure almost completely fell apart. It was therefore not easy to travel or communicate between various corners of the country and that stunted development in very many areas outside Nairobi.

Second they used another tactic of what I would call "developmental rewards for support". They singled out areas where they had massive support and developed this regions and sidelined areas that were largely opposition zones or that had communities that did not have the population numbers nor political clout to have any effect on the governments of the day.

Obviously, the results are there for all to see-A vibrant, modern capital surrounded by pockets of fairly well off regions (in developmental terms which mostly happen to be the highlands and urban areas) and vast areas with marked poverty where the marginalized communities live today.

However, for the first time in Kenya's history, there is more administrative and economic decentralization with communities charting their developmental paths according to their needs. All the money isn't now going into Nairobi but into rebuilding and improving our battered infrastructure, providing education, healthcare, power e.t.c. to Kenyans who havent seen these basics for nearly a quarter of a century or more. I

Its just been around 4 years since real reforms have began taking place and it will take some time before most of Kenya is uplifted from poverty and the effects of all those years of plundering and mismanagement, but by the look of things, give the country at least 10-20 years from now. Im sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

Kenguy I hope your right, Kenya has suffered many many many years of corruption and complete misuse of goverment money that was allocated to greedy personal use of the Moi goverment. Growth will come, I am sure of it, probably above 8%. All I'm saying is that it doesn't all go into Nairobi. Which granted has alot of poor people, but Kenya is a nation of over 30 million with most of those living outside of the capital.

A solution to the problem, as discussed earlier is to move the capital somewhere else. The largest city shouldn't be along with the financial, commercial and capital of a nation. Create an administrative city from fresh and this is a great tool of decentralization. Its helped in the U.S, Canada, Brazil, Australia and among other countries.

Kenguy

September 9th, 2007, 06:47 PM

Kenguy I hope your right, Kenya has suffered many many many years of corruption and complete misuse of goverment money that was allocated to greedy personal use of the Moi goverment. Growth will come, I am sure of it, probably above 8%. All I'm saying is that it doesn't all go into Nairobi. Which granted has alot of poor people, but Kenya is a nation of over 30 million with most of those living outside of the capital.

A solution to the problem, as discussed earlier is to move the capital somewhere else. The largest city shouldn't be along with the financial, commercial and capital of a nation. Create an administrative city from fresh and this is a great tool of decentralization. Its helped in the U.S, Canada, Brazil, Australia and among other countries.
^^
Creating a new capital for Kenya will not help much. First, Kenya has other more pressing challenges to think about than building a brand new capital. The funds are also not available for such a grand scheme at the moment.

I support the strengthening of the regional capitals instead of building a brand new capital. If most government activities were equally distributed among the major cities and towns in the countries eight provinces, the administrative pressure would be eased off Nairobi. It would also ensure equitable distribution of wealth in all areas of Kenya compared to if we were to sink all our resources in setting up one major administrative capital.

Furthermore, the lure of Nairobi isn't based on its administrative function but on its economic and social appeal. A new capital wont stop the masses from moving to Nairobi. Just look at Tanzania. They prefer living and working in Dar-es salaam to Dodoma anyday. The same would happen in Kenya.

As I mentioned earlier, not all the growth is going to Nairobi. Kenya's economy is being fuelled by tourism, mostly in its beaches (mombasa) and various game parks around the country. Agricuilture comes second. Economic growth is becoming more evident around the countryside as it is in Nairobi. Only that Nairobi has had a head start in many aspects. Its my hope that the trend will continue.

ewangai

September 9th, 2007, 06:48 PM

Alex Roney

September 9th, 2007, 09:48 PM

^^
Creating a new capital for Kenya will not help much. First, Kenya has other more pressing challenges to think about than building a brand new capital. The funds are also not available for such a grand scheme at the moment.

I support the strengthening of the regional capitals instead of building a brand new capital. If most government activities were equally distributed among the major cities and towns in the countries eight provinces, the administrative pressure would be eased off Nairobi. It would also ensure equitable distribution of wealth in all areas of Kenya compared to if we were to sink all our resources in setting up one major administrative capital.

Furthermore, the lure of Nairobi isn't based on its administrative function but on its economic and social appeal. A new capital wont stop the masses from moving to Nairobi. Just look at Tanzania. They prefer living and working in Dar-es salaam to Dodoma anyday. The same would happen in Kenya.

As I mentioned earlier, not all the growth is going to Nairobi. Kenya's economy is being fuelled by tourism, mostly in its beaches (mombasa) and various game parks around the country. Agricuilture comes second. Economic growth is becoming more evident around the countryside as it is in Nairobi. Only that Nairobi has had a head start in many aspects. Its my hope that the trend will continue.

The capital is a long term investment, perhaps shouldn't be done now. Their are more pressing issues I agree.

Okay, you have a reasonable point, but the mentality has to shift. A growth package that includes creations of jobs, investments and buisness opportunities outside of Nairobi.

But thats my point though, Nairobi wont' loose its commerical appeal with a no capital. N.Y hasn't lost it due to D.C and Sao Paulo with regards to Brasilia. The incentives by both foreign and local investors will always be in Nairobi. But with wealthier secondary towns, their will be different opportunities.

All I'm commenting on is based on my own personal travels with a close Kenyan friend of mine. We drove from Nairobi down to Mombassa and it was quite disproportionate. Northern Kenya near the Somalian border is even worse, with annual droughts killing cattle and threatening many people. I hope your right though, your Kenyan so I'll take your word for it.

Alex Roney

September 9th, 2007, 09:51 PM

Centralisation works well for London though. I think with good Plannign we can pull it of and make the others Resort Cities. Mombasa seems to thrive on this and i believe kisumu needs to exploit the lake a lot more than it does. Eldoret might be an industrial city where most of our inport and export goes. anyway one way or another, so long as the money keeps coming in, we will get there somehow.

It's worked well for London but not other secondary cities like Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Heck the gap between London and the rest of England is huuugeeee. It's not so much that Nairobi suffers but that the rest of the country does.

Kenguy

September 10th, 2007, 10:30 AM

The capital is a long term investment, perhaps shouldn't be done now. Their are more pressing issues I agree.

Okay, you have a reasonable point, but the mentality has to shift. A growth package that includes creations of jobs, investments and buisness opportunities outside of Nairobi.

But thats my point though, Nairobi wont' loose its commerical appeal with a no capital. N.Y hasn't lost it due to D.C and Sao Paulo with regards to Brasilia. The incentives by both foreign and local investors will always be in Nairobi. But with wealthier secondary towns, their will be different opportunities.

All I'm commenting on is based on my own personal travels with a close Kenyan friend of mine. We drove from Nairobi down to Mombassa and it was quite disproportionate. Northern Kenya near the Somalian border is even worse, with annual droughts killing cattle and threatening many people. I hope your right though, your Kenyan so I'll take your word for it.

^^
Alex, you are very right regarding the Northern part of our country. Its simply as if we don't live in the same country. Developmentally, they are at least 20-30 years behind the rest of the country. Its so bad that people there refer going to Nairobi as going to "Kenya'' even when they themselves are in Kenya.

The journey from Nairobi to Mombasa is very unrepresentative of the country. Most of the open spaces you saw were mainly game parks and a few in between towns that dont have much activity in them.

To get the best picture of Kenya would have been to travel westwards through the Rift valley to Kisumu/ western Kenya or towards the Mt Kenya region. These regions are where majority of Kenyans live and also the economic heartland of Kenya.These parts of Kenya are fairly well off and are improving. Though there are still many pockets of poverty, there is a visible momentum in its reduction in the last four years. Things are getting better and I hope the north joins the prosperity bandwagon.

Alex Roney

September 10th, 2007, 05:46 PM

[/B]

^^
Alex, you are very right regarding the Northern part of our country. Its simply as if we don't live in the same country. Developmentally, they are at least 20-30 years behind the rest of the country. Its so bad that people there refer going to Nairobi as going to "Kenya'' even when they themselves are in Kenya.

The journey from Nairobi to Mombasa is very unrepresentative of the country. Most of the open spaces you saw were mainly game parks and a few in between towns that dont have much activity in them.

To get the best picture of Kenya would have been to travel westwards through the Rift valley to Kisumu/ western Kenya or towards the Mt Kenya region. These regions are where majority of Kenyans live and also the economic heartland of Kenya.These parts of Kenya are fairly well off and are improving. Though there are still many pockets of poverty, there is a visible momentum in its reduction in the last four years. Things are getting better and I hope the north joins the prosperity bandwagon.

I've never been anywhere west of Nairobi, matter of fact my experience of Kenya is quite linear. Nairobi and Mombassa and passing through everything in between.

Kenguy

September 10th, 2007, 06:44 PM

I've never been anywhere west of Nairobi, matter of fact my experience of Kenya is quite linear. Nairobi and Mombassa and passing through everything in between.
^^
I hope that you visit Kenya again and head to the west and central regions of the country. It will give you a better perspective of Kenya.

Most visitors are quickly shuttled to the game parks and Nairobi/Mombasa the moment they land in Kenya and leave the country with images of nothing else but memories of the capital and the wildlife they viewed on their stay. Hardly anyone ventures westwards which would give a more wholesome experience of the country.

Though Im not saying that the rest of Kenya is rosy, it is improving gradually and that in itself is wonderful when one looks into the not too distant past.

Alex Roney

September 10th, 2007, 09:37 PM

^^
I hope that you visit Kenya again and head to the west and central regions of the country. It will give you a better perspective of Kenya.

Most visitors are quickly shuttled to the game parks and Nairobi/Mombasa the moment they land in Kenya and leave the country with images of nothing else but memories of the capital and the wildlife they viewed on their stay. Hardly anyone ventures westwards which would give a more wholesome experience of the country.

Though Im not saying that the rest of Kenya is rosy, it is improving gradually and that in itself is wonderful when one looks into the not too distant past.

I've actually didn't go in a safari, thankfully I wasn't in those obnoxious western tourist groups. When I arrived at the international airport in Nairobi, a close Kenyan childhood friend of mine picked me up. I pretty much stayed with him for 18 days, 11 of which we spent in Nairobi. It was a great experience of relaxing, going out at night be it at night clubs and restaurants.

Your right about the drive to Mombassa, I was expecting an interesting road trip, but it takes a loooong time. 7 hours of going down with not much "activity". The road wasn't to good I must say, They should add a view lanes and just completely had another layer of asphalt. To many pot holes and far to bumpy.

I'd like to go trecking in the rift valley, it probably as an amazing scenary. I reckon to go on another trip, however next summer it will probably be India.

Kenguy

September 11th, 2007, 08:52 AM

I've actually didn't go in a safari, thankfully I wasn't in those obnoxious western tourist groups. When I arrived at the international airport in Nairobi, a close Kenyan childhood friend of mine picked me up. I pretty much stayed with him for 18 days, 11 of which we spent in Nairobi. It was a great experience of relaxing, going out at night be it at night clubs and restaurants.

Your right about the drive to Mombassa, I was expecting an interesting road trip, but it takes a loooong time. 7 hours of going down with not much "activity". The road wasn't to good I must say, They should add a view lanes and just completely had another layer of asphalt. To many pot holes and far to bumpy.
I'd like to go trecking in the rift valley, it probably as an amazing scenary. I reckon to go on another trip, however next summer it will probably be India.
^^
I see that you must have visited the country quite a while back. The road to Mombasa has been completely redone and is now one of the best roads in the entire E.African region (trust me, I travel alot across the region and I am impressed at the level of workmanship on the road.) I also hope they expand it in future.

Im sure you would enjoy a trip to the rift with all its lovely scenery along the way. I wish you a pleasant trip to India next summer. :)

Alex Roney

September 11th, 2007, 10:44 AM

^^
I see that you must have visited the country quite a while back. The road to Mombasa has been completely redone and is now one of the best roads in the entire E.African region (trust me, I travel alot across the region and I am impressed at the level of workmanship on the road.) I also hope they expand it in future.

Im sure you would enjoy a trip to the rift with all its lovely scenery along the way. I wish you a pleasant trip to India next summer. :)

Do you have any pics? Because I travelled along this road in July lol! Is their only one route or perhaps I've been in Europe for to long. :nuts:

Kenguy

September 11th, 2007, 12:13 PM

Do you have any pics? Because I travelled along this road in July lol! Is their only one route or perhaps I've been in Europe for to long. :nuts:
^^
Unfortunately, I dont. I travelled on the road in August and it was OK to me. They only had a short stretch as you enter Mombasa to recarpet but the rest of the road was fine. Thats funny because we both used the road a month apart and you said it was full of potholes?:nuts:

Kisumu Ndogo

September 12th, 2007, 03:54 AM

Wednesday September 12, 2007
By Brian Adero

The Government has released details of the 20 flagship projects that will kick off its Vision 2030 development strategy. The plans cover everything from building three resort cities and supplying cheap fertiliser, to the creating a Dubai-style free trade port and industrial parks for small businesses.
http://www.imbank.com/_common/images/contact_TOWER_21.jpg

The State also plans to build and fully equip 560 new secondary schools, employ 28,000 teachers and make other changes to the education system to create the workforce for the new economy. Planning and National Development minister, Mr Henry Obwocha, revealed the list of projects on Tuesday while launching the Sector Working Groups, the teams that will lead planning in the various areas.

Although no figures were provided , President Kibaki in May said the Government would spend some Sh500 billion over the next five years on the 20 key projects. Speaking at event, Finance minister Mr Amos Kimunya said the working groups would allow development partners, the private sector and other stakeholders to give their input on the plans.

"This enhances transparency in the budget process and facilitates wider ownership of public-funded programmes," he said.

Key areas

Vision 2030 is a six-pillar strategy that is aimed at steering Kenya to ten per cent GDP growth by 2012, and becoming a middle-income country by the year 2030. The six sectors chosen under its "economic pillar" are tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, trade, information technology and financial services. Apart from investing in these six areas the Government will also spend money on security, infrastructure, public sector reform, people development and land reform.

To spur growth in tourism, the Government plans to build three resort cities. These will be Isiolo and two unidentified coastal towns. There are plans to limit the number of tourists visiting "premium parks" like Nakuru and Amboseli. Money will also be spent on improving tourist visits to less popular parks as well as to Western Kenya destinations. The Government is aiming for "high end play at four key sites in Western circuit and 1,000 homes stay sites".
To help improve farming, the Government plans to push through new laws on agricultural reform, shake up the land registry, and develop a master-plan on land-use. Obwocha said the sector will also benefit from a "three-tier fertiliser cost-reduction programme". Farming input prices will be lowered by local blending and manufacturing, as well as improvement in purchasing and the supply chain.
http://www.mentalacrobatics.com/think/blogimages/halfmast3.jpg

One of the big ideas to grow wholesale and retail trade is the creation of a free trade port to serve the regional market. This, Obwocha says, will effectively "bring Dubai to Kenya". Large-scale producers will benefit from the creation of "wholesale hubs" — markets and auctions at which groups of producers can sell their products in bulk. Small-scale retailers, on the other hand, will be organised in new markets to semi-formalise informal players and help them grow.

Other projects listed by the minister include the development of industrial and manufacturing zones. Businesses will be grouped together in "special economic clusters" by industry and target players offered various incentives.

Obwocha added that the Government will also pilot five industrial parks for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various urban centres. These will be run with help from local authorities. The information technology sector’s projects are centred around developing a showcase park for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The BPO park will have "world-class infrastructure developed by top international IT suppliers". Competitive incentive packages will be offered to call-centre companies interested in being located in park. This, the minister said, will provide "a one-stop shop for administration, talent and services".
http://www.321site.com/greg/photos/ponhofi-computer-lab.jpg

In the financial sector, emphasis will be placed on creating bigger and more efficient banks and reforming the pension system. The Government will also issue a sovereign benchmark bond to take advantage of cheaper foreign borrowing opportunities as well as work on a strategy to harness remittances from Kenyans in the Diaspora.
As resources are poured in the 20 flagship projects, the plan also calls for other enabling changes that will be critical to driving growth. To support the resort cities, tourist circuits, wholesale hubs and other projects, money will be spent on building key roads to the various locations. Many of the flagship projects — such as the "special economic clusters" — will also benefit from subsidised energy costs. The State will also support the development of transport, telecommunication and construction initiatives around flagship projects.

Public sector reform will involve having "proactive delivery units" drive flagship projects, aggressively pursuing target investors, and coordinating infrastructure and land purchase. The Government plans to simplify and reduce taxes to help move informal players to greater formality. Obwocha said funding would be provided for training programmes to support the quantity and quality of talent needed in each key sector.

Under land reform and security, the Government will develop a land use master-plan, using a publicly-accessible land registry to identify and zone certain areas for specific types of activity. The plan also calls for increased spending to assure security for investors and Kenyans in general.

Under Vision 2030’s "social pillar", the plan focuses on seven broad areas: education, health, housing, water and sanitation, environment, gender, and youth and vulnerable groups. The State also plans to build and fully equip 560 new secondary schools to accommodate the increasing number of students graduating from primary schools. Some 28,000 new teachers will be hired to improve quality and end localised teacher shortages. The government will also establish a computer supply programme to help equip students with modern IT skills.

In the pastoral districts, the State will build at least one boarding primary schools in each constituency "to ensure that learning is not disrupted as people move from one place to the other". A voucher programme will also be rolled out in five poor districts enabling the poor to access education. Community health centres will be integrated into the national health system to promote preventive health care as opposed to curative intervention. The Ministry of Health will cease to run the country’s health institutions. Instead, the Government will encourage independent operations at district, provincial and national hospitals.

Mombasa Resort
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1110/991605691_811ff3ac09_o.jpg

A mandatory National Health Insurance Scheme will also be created to promote equity in Kenya’s healthcare financing. Health funding will be sent directly to hospitals and community health centres as opposed to district headquarters. The State will also scale up the output-based approach to healthcare to enable disadvantaged groups such as the poor and orphans get medical attention from preferred institutions.

Under plans for water and sanitation, the Government plans to improve water resource information and management by rehabilitating the hydro-meteorological network. To increase water harvesting and storage, two multipurpose dams — with a storage capacity of 2.4 billion cubic metres — will be built along rivers Nzoia and Nyando. Another 22 medium-sized dams with a capacity of two billion cubic metres will be build in various arid and semi-arid areas.

Obwocha added that more money would be pumped into the Women’s Enterprise Fund under projects intended to support the youth, women and vulnerable groups.

The State will also establish a "consolidated social protection fund" for cash transfers intended to help orphans, vulnerable children and the elderly.

To address housing needs, the Vision 2030 plan calls for the building sector to produce 200,000 housing units annually by 2012. The Government will enact the Housing Bill, 2006, to enable one-stop approval for housing developers keen to take on the challenge. It will also to establish a secondary mortgage finance corporation to increase access to housing finance.

Obwocha’s presentation was the most detailed view of the Vision 2030 play revealed yet. It sets the ground for the development of the Vision’s first Medium-Term Planning process for 2008 to 2012. Once sector teams are in place, the Government will create a Vision Delivery Commission to fast-track the inplementation of flagship projects. Government spending will then be shifted towards meeting the medium term priorities and getting started on the road to being a "middle-income country".

nairoberry

October 3rd, 2007, 06:03 PM

Race to build ‘Next Mara’ sites kicks off
Written by Solomon Mburu

Tourists at the Maasai Mara01-October-2007: The race for rights to put up new tourism facilities at the Meru Conservation Area has officially kicked off with the publication of a notice inviting bids for leases.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in conjunction with Isiolo and Mwingi county councils are offering nine sites for development of accommodation facilities.

The sites are Kenmare, Kidani, and Golo 1 in the Meru National Park, Golo 2, Burqueque, Machet and Malka Yaka in the Bisanadi National Reserve, Ekima in Mwingi National Reserve and Kambi ya Simba at the Kora National Park.

Successful bidders will get 20-year leases renewable for 5 years. Investors should put up eco-lodges and luxury tented camps not exceeding 60 beds.

Billed as the ‘Next Mara,’ the conservation area offers investors a new vista of investment since all developments at the Masai Mara have been stopped until a new management plan is in place.

Developments in the world-famous conservancy was stopped amid complaints that uncontrolled human activity was threatening its ecosystem.

Mr Ken Esau, who co-ordinates development of the Meru Conservation Area, said only investors able to make investments worth about Sh500m would qualify for the leases.

Mr Esau said stakeholders set high standards to eliminate weak contenders and ensure the conservancy remained a high-end tourism destination.

A new management plan for the area that was unveiled in July this year, opened 13 new sites for development. During the unveiling of the plan, the KWS director, Dr Julius Kipng’etich, said facilities in the area would have to meet the expectations of high-end tourists.

The area has of late benefited from investments estimated at Sh1.2 billion targeted to return the park to its former glory in the ‘70s.

However, the recent boom in tourism has attracted investments with the French Development Agency, the French Global Environment Facility and the government contributing to give it a facelift.

Among other developments, roads have been constructed at a cost of Sh251 million, two airstrips rehabilitated while a 43-kilometre electric has been put up at a cost of Sh35 million.

nairoberry

October 3rd, 2007, 06:10 PM

CCK donates funds for assembly of local PCs
Written by Okuttah Mark

The proposed local assembly of computers under an initiative dubbed ‘Madaraka’ has received a new lease of life with the donation of seed capital to two organisations involved in the project.

Communications regulator CCK has donated a total of Sh10 million to the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and the Kenya College of Communications Technology towards the project.

Lack of funding had meant that no units have been assembled locally since last year when the initiative was unveiled. The project aims at providing quality and affordable PCs to the market amid fears of dumping of electronic waste in the country in the form of outdated PCs and other computer hardware and software.

The other two universities undertaking the project —University of Nairobi and Strathmore University — are in the process of arranging financing with donors.

Information Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo said the price of Madaraka will be about half that of similar computers with similar specification.

Already, JKUT is using 100 of the ‘Madaraka’ computers assembled at the institutions. The PCs are part of pilot computers they assembled last year when the project started .

CCK Director General Eng. John Waweru said with ambitious ICT initiatives aimed at delivering high speed broadband to the country already in place, access to affordable personal computers is going to be key for development of Kenya.

The Vice-Chancellor of JKUAT, Prof. Nick Wanjohi, said ‘madaraka’ computers will be marketed in the East African region and beyond. The project is seen as one way of transfering ICT skills to students.

nairoberry

October 3rd, 2007, 06:11 PM

Digital city plan to raise property rates in Athi River
Written by Morris Aron

Property experts are predicting a rise in prices in commercial and residential property in Athi River with the planned construction of East Africa’s first ever digital city in Nairobi’s satellite industrial town.

The development comes as a boon for the area which is already witnessing high property transfers as speculative developers move in .The concept is also bound to increase the number of companies in the town.

Mr Tirop Kosgey, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing , told Business Daily that many developers were looking towards Athi River for plots to develop either for family occupation or for speculative purposes in anticipation of property price appreciation.

The area has also seen remarkable increase in the number of people moving away from Nairobi because of high rents. “ Many individuals are buying plots along the Athi River-Kitengela stretch. There are those who are moving to the area because of cheaper rental houses or to work in the industries around the town,” said Tirop.

Some are buying land and constructing houses in readiness for occupation when Mombasa Road is converted into a modern dual carriage- highway. Saccos and other investment groups have also shown renewed interest in the area. Only recently the police Sacco bought property at Valley View to house its members. But property prices vary.

In a distance of 100 metres, for example, price variations are as high 30 per cent as firms arbitrarily set prices based on demand—real or perceived.
Property experts have pegged the development on increased demand from developers and tenants. Nuh Omar of Jambostar properties approximates that a 100m by 150m piece of land goes for between Sh450,000 and Sh 600,000.

“The number of inquires that we have received from people intending to buy the land is so high. Their only concern is the sewerage and water services,” said Umar.

The planned increase in the number of developments is set to stretch basic amenities such as sewerage and water services as most of the residential neighbourhoods are not connected to the main sewer or water lines.

Export Processing Zone’s public relations officer John Chifalu said although the exact location of the digital city was yet to be identified, EPZA was increasingly getting enquiries from companies wishing to relocate their IT centres next to the planned digital city.

“EPZA zone and the buildings in it are all IT compliant and fully cabled. It would definitely be a plus if it located within the boundaries of the EPZA,” said Chifula.

Recently Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) entered a Sh67 billion partnership to establish East Africa’s first digital city.

The initiative is expected to create new jobs as major corporations set up base and use local resources to conduct their business.

nairoberry

October 3rd, 2007, 06:15 PM

Safaricom to expand seamless mobile network
Written by Okuttah Mark

02-October-2007: Safaricom is in talks with mobile phone operators in South Africa and Mozambique that will allow its subscribers to use the service while in those countries without having to pay fees applicable to international calls.

The talks are meant to expand the geographical scope of the Kama Kawaida service, which enables pre-paid and post-paid subscribers to make and receive calls while outside Kenya without incurring roaming charges.

Safaricom and MTN Rwanda yesterday teamed up to launch a similar service that will expand the seamless mobile network services to Rwanda. Safaricom said the service, through a reduction in communications and business costs, will help its subscribers especially businessmen, reduce operating costs.

The Rwanda arrangement comes eight months after it was launched in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania by Safaricom, Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Uganda.

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said the subscribers of the two mobile companies, both pre-paid and post paid will be able to make international calls on their current tariff plans with no roaming charges while travelling within the two countries.

MTN Rwanda has 600,000 subscribers while Safaricom has 7.2 million subscribers. The two network operators will avail their airtime vouchers across the two East African countries.

The service is automatically activated once a subscriber moves across the border and there is no sign- up fee charged. He said that the extension of Kama Kawaida to Rwanda is expected to significantly by promoting regional commerce.

“We believe the affordability and convenience of this new service will significantly ease telecommunication in the region and foster economic and social integration.

Safaricom’s competitor Celtel Kenya has also been expanding its regional reach through its product One Network the world’s first borderless mobile network currently serving six countries in Africa - Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda covering about 160 million people.

The service enables subscribers to move freely across geographical borders in these six countries without roaming call surcharges.

africanman

October 7th, 2007, 11:04 PM

I have been an advocate of decentralization for years. I think that all tourism related Federal headquaters should be in Mombasa, Nakuru or Eldoret should have most farming related Federal offices their and I think we can do more to spread wealth and responsibility. We would also have a country where different people move to farther regions in the country bringing new ideas and development all over the country. It makes no sence to have to travel to Nairobi to take care of an administrative issue with cities like Nakuru, Eldoret, Mombasa, Kisumu and Thika. Strengthen the regional cities and make Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret national cities that will attract upwardly mobile individuals. If the government does do this, you will be surprised how many people will choose to move to these other cities.

chui

October 8th, 2007, 09:14 AM

Kenguy

October 8th, 2007, 10:43 AM

^^
I wish ODM had such elaborate plans, then I would have more confidence in them as opposed to endlessly talking about majimbo
^^
The type of ''majimbo'' (federalism) that I support is the kind that was proposed in the bomas draft of the constitution. Just increase the amount of money in the CDF from the current 2.5-3% to around 65% of GNP or more. I dont want to see Kenya carved up into small unviable pieces. Our problem isn't about where Kenyans are administered from (read Nairobi) but where and how the country's resources are distributed to benefit everyone right down to the guy in a village in North Eastern province.

ernestombayo7

October 8th, 2007, 04:24 PM

ernestombayo7

October 11th, 2007, 12:36 AM

Economy grows 7 pc

Story by PHILIP WAHOME
Publication Date: 10/11/2007

The Kenyan economy has grown by 7 per cent for the first six months of the year, statistics released by the Government shows.

The expansion rate has picked pace up from 5.6 per cent recorded over the same period last year, despite this being an election year.

However, the Monetary Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC), a think tank set up to advise CBK on economic matters, warns of the need to slow down rise in cost of living, resulting from supply bottlenecks.

In its 17th sitting, the committee noted that although the rate of inflation eased in September from 12.4 per cent in August to 11.7 per cent, inflationary pressure still poses a great challenge.

Noting that rising petroleum prices in the international market and increased election spending are likely to push up prices of goods and services. This, the committee says, needs to be guarded against as it poses the risk of pushing the cost of living up.

“The inflation outlook still calls for vigilance given high petroleum prices in the international market,” Central Bank governor, Njuguna Ndung’u says.

“Anticipated increased election spending might add to inflationary pressures of goods and services in the next three to fours months.”

However, it is the increasing international oil prices that pose the greatest risk to higher inflation.

And in resonance with other macro economic trends that have defied previous election years’ movement, the committee ruled out increased inflation arising from money supply expansion- printing of new currency. The committee termed such an occurrence as remote.

chui

October 14th, 2007, 10:39 PM

NEWS

Sh60b superhighways project may provide a way out of the chaos

Story by DAVID OKWEMBAH
Publication Date: 10/14/2007

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=108431

Nairobi residents might not be trapped in heavy traffic forever after all. A major road rehabilitation and reconstruction project, which is already under way, could ease traffic flow into and out of the city centre dramatically.

If successful, the Sh60 billion project will give roads in Nairobi’s central business district a major face-lift.

The Roads ministry has already received permission from Parliament to set up the Kenya Highways, Kenya Urban Roads and Kenya Rural Roads authorities to be in charge of the country’s major highways and urban and rural roads.

The 50-kilometre Nairobi-Thika Road will be reconstructed and turned into a six-lane superhighway.

The transformation of Thika Road will cost the taxpayer a whopping Sh15 billion. The contractor is expected on site from May next year. The project is funded by the African Development Bank (ADB).

The road, which leads to Central, Eastern and North Eastern provinces, is one of the busiest in the country.

It is currently being rehabilitated at a cost of Sh2 billion to fill the potholes that make the journey to the industrial town a nightmare for motorists.

The project is also expected to open up northern Kenya and link up the southern part of the country to the major highways.

For the first time, northern Kenya will have a tarmac road with the construction of the 136-kilometre Isiolo-Merille Road.

The Nairobi CBD project will be undertaken after the completion of a study carried out by the Japan is adopted by the Government.

Under the study, some buildings may have to come down to ease congestion that has scared some investors away from the city centre.

Some have opted to seek office space on the outskirts of the CBD in Upper Hill, Milimani and Westlands.

The study identified roads as “missing links” that would lead to decongesting traffic in Nairobi. Also to be constructed are bypasses to reduce the traffic that converges on Uhuru Highway.

An Outer Ring Road, which would link Mombasa Road at City Cabanas hotel and Thika at the GSU headquarters, is also under consideration.

Work on the road identified as a major urban artery will cost the exchequer at least Sh5 billion.

Preparations to rebuild the road and turn it into a dual carriageway have been finalised with design work almost complete.

According to the Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, Mr Richard Abura, tenders for the road which passes through the populous Kariobangi and Umoja estates will be out in six months.

Last month the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Engineer Mohammed Mahamoud, announced that three Chinese companies had been awarded tenders to reconstruct three roads to the tune of Sh15.3 billion.

They are Isiolo-Merille Road (Sh4.7 billion), Namanga-Athi River Road (Sh6.2 billion) and Loitokitok-Emali Road (Sh4.2 billion).

Work on Machakos Turnoff-Embakasi Road, which is expected to make the entire stretch from Nairobi to Machakos town a dual carriageway, has already begun.

The 33-kilometre stretch will cost Sh4.3 billion to reconstruct, but once complete it will ease the traffic congestion at Mlolongo near the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

nairoberry

October 15th, 2007, 03:09 AM

chui

October 15th, 2007, 04:35 PM

It got me excited alright, that's why I posted it! .... and the best thing is that work has already started on the ground:banana::banana:

Kenguy

October 15th, 2007, 08:16 PM

yeah man if this program is fully completed, multi-nationals will have a tougher choice to make between kenya and SA. right now i dont have the exact # of companies that have chosen over sa partly bcoz of our pathetic state of our roads. RVR needs to get its act together coz thats why they were sold the kenya railways. i dont know about you but this project got me excited.
^^
Just give RVR time. right now they have to redo most of our dilapidated rail network.:bash: I got a chance to ride in one of their new coaches here in Kampala and it was lovely. I wish they had continued running the train service for KLA. What I'm sure of is that the goods and commuter train services in Kenya will see a dramatic change very soon.:)

africanman

October 16th, 2007, 07:14 PM

^^
The type of ''majimbo'' (federalism) that I support is the kind that was proposed in the bomas draft of the constitution. Just increase the amount of money in the CDF from the current 2.5-3% to around 65% of GNP or more. I dont want to see Kenya carved up into small unviable pieces. Our problem isn't about where Kenyans are administered from (read Nairobi) but where and how the country's resources are distributed to benefit everyone right down to the guy in a village in North Eastern province.

People seem to think that Federalism is going toend all Kenyan problems but they are very wrong. Kibaki's government has already started giving money to local gov't but the corruption issue is still a consern. Kibaki wanted someone to oversee how funds are used but many local leaders are very opposed to a senior accounting manager to make sure the funds are used for the local area. The last five years have been good for Kenya but it will take longer for the regular guy to see real change and I just hope that people are patient enough to give Kibaki a chance to continue what has been a major economic revival. Say what you like but a economist like Kibaki, who might not be the greatest politician, is what Kenya needs to get out to the economic turmoil of 27 Moi years.
I don't want to make this a political discussion but Decembers elections could make or break Kenya. I am not sure what Odinga or Kalonzo will do if elected but I hope they will continue the measured approach Kibaki has adopted and not opt for dramatic changes that could send what is still a fragile economy into a tailspin. I am not a political junkie but I do know alot about economics and the fact that Kenya is now at 7% grawth rate is something that we should all be proud of.

chui

October 25th, 2007, 03:47 PM

Kenya hopes to boost tourism with direct flights to US by 2009

The Associated Press

Published: October 24, 2007

NAIROBI, Kenya: Kenya wants to boost its tourism sector by offering its airlines a chance to run lucrative long-haul flights to the U.S. within two years, the head of the civil aviation authority said Wednesday.

No Kenyan airline has applied yet to fly to the U.S., but the East African nation plans to open the possibility for the future — by complying with international civil aviation standards and qualifying for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's "Category 1" rating.

"We believe by 2009 we should have achieved 100 percent compliance to international standards," said Chris Kuto, director general of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.

Kenya has a burgeoning tourism sector and has been marketing to attract more American tourists, who currently must take connecting flights through Europe to reach Nairobi. Europe provides most of Kenya's tourists.

Last month, Delta Air Lines said it would begin in June to run flights to Kenya, from New York via the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

The United States demands that U.S.-bound direct flights come from countries with robust aviation authorities that guarantee the safety of their national airlines.

"Achieving 'Category 1,' it is not only a civil aviation issue. It also touches on security and (the country's) airports," Kuto said.

As of March, only five African countries — Cape Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco and South Africa — had "Category 1" rating, according to the U.S. FAA's Web site.

Kuto said Kenya had the means and equipment for complying with international standards, but had trouble retaining qualified staff because government-level salaries were lower than those offered in the private sector. Currently, about 20 percent of technical positions in the aviation authority are unfilled.

Alex Roney

October 25th, 2007, 11:55 PM

Kenguy

October 26th, 2007, 12:34 PM

How is it that Kenyan airways is allowed to fly to Europe but not America? I really doubt that the standards are that much different. I'd be interesting to see what the supposed "irregulations" are in Kenya's civil aviation. Kenyan airways should just apply now for rights to fly to the U.S. I mean a direct flight is more appealing than a stop over in Dakar.
^^
The FAA takes into account the passenger capacity of the country's airports and security (read terrorist attack preparedness) more than the European nations. This is partly the reason the Kenyan government is so keen on expanding JKIA from its current 2 million to close to 10 million passenger capacity.

Kenya has also had 2 major terrorist attacks and one of those was by al-queida. That was also a major factor of the country being percieved as having loose entry points for terrorist groups. Security at the airports has increased since then and this should not be a major hurdle in attaining category 1 status.

usersky0010

November 4th, 2007, 07:58 PM

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Cities of the Poor I: Life in the Slums (Kenya)
December 18, 2006

Sheri Fink
Next year will mark a global, demographic milestone. According to the United Nations, for the first time in history, half the earth's population will live in cities. But lest you imagine a life of urban sophistication for these city dwellers, consider this statistic. An estimated one billion people now live in third world slums. That's about one out of every six people on the planet. And the number of slum dwellers could double in thirty years.

This week, we'll take an in-depth look at life in the slums. We'll go deep inside these burgeoning cities of the poor where you can find entrenched poverty and enduring hope. And we'll hear how governments, academics, and slum dwellers themselves are trying to improve conditions. Today, we begin our four-part series in the East African nation of Kenya. Reporter Sheri Fink takes us to its capital, Nairobi. (All photos by Sheri Fink.)

Listen to Sheri Fink's report (13:00)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fink: Armstrong O'Brian Ongera, Jr., used to live in Nairobi's slums. Now he's a political activist who focuses on the problems of the poor. And he's offered to show me what life is like for Nairobi's almost two million slum dwellers. He's brought me back to his old neighborhood.

Armstrong O'Brian Ongera, Jr.

Ongera: “I used to live around here.”

Fink: We climb a hillside. A jumble of rusted metal roofs stretches to the horizon.

Ongera: "We are now in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya."

Kibera

Fink: In fact, many say it's the largest slum in Africa. Kibera's true population isn't known, but there are probably as many people living here as there are in San Francisco, packed into housing few Americans could fathom.

Ongera: “The houses are made of mud and they're very crowded. And the slum is very dirty, you can see."

Fink: And you can smell. A few steps into Kibera, we encounter brown-green water flowing through an open ditch.

Ongera: “That's the sewage. Now it's passing through the slum."

Fink: The foul river carries not just sewage, but also chemicals from farming estates outside the slum. It's littered with refuse, too: plastic bags, glass bottles. A toddler stands barefoot at the water's edge. Just behind her, a row of low huts stretches along the ditch.

Fink: They have open windows without glass panes. And their facades are marked by a water line. The polluted stream sometimes overflows and floods them. While sewage from outside Kibera flows into the slum, the sewage from inside never leaves. We meet a woman walking on a dirt path. Her hair is tightly wrapped in a ragged, brown handkerchief.

Musanga: “My name is Prisca Musanga. I'm 28 years old."

Fink: She lives here with her four children, her husband and her in-laws. All eight of them are crowded into a one-room shack.

Musanga: "We have a lot of problems because it's not a place where you can admire to stay, my dear. You can see yourself."

Fink: What she wants me to see is the key challenge of her life in Kibera: basic sanitation. Like the vast majority of Kibera residents, Musanga and her family have no toilet. They used to make do by sneaking into a nearby outhouse that belongs to someone else. She takes me down a muddy, slippery path to show it to me. A lock and chain now keep intruders out - so residents have little choice about where to relieve themselves. The wooden door of the privy is stained and wet.

Musanga: “That is the urine."

Musanga's "bathroom"
Fink: And a muddy swamp of plastic bags obstructs the entrance to the latrine. It's a collection of what's known in slum vernacular as "flying toilets" - flimsy bags filled with human waste.

Musanga: "Somebody came with a flying toilet and throw on the door."

Fink: "So all those plastic bags are flying toilets?"

Musanga: "Yeah, are flying toilets."

Fink: Slums throughout the developing world are - in a sense - giant cesspools. Sanitation systems are nearly absent. Human waste leaches into the water people drink and contaminates the food they eat. It carries typhoid and other diseases that can be deadly, especially to young children. It's hard to understand why anyone would live here, but my tour guide, Ongera, has an answer.

Ongera: “Slum life is cheap."

Fink: By that he means "inexpensive."

Ongera: “With less than a dollar you can survive.”

Fink: And Kibera is a good place to live if you need to earn that dollar a day.

Ongera: “Kibera is surrounded by rich people.”

Fink: Those rich people hire slumdwellers as maids, security guards, drivers. Nairobi's rich also buy products made in the slums. Ongera and I duck under a plastic tarp into a small workshop. We find workers cutting and polishing cow bones into jewelry and buttons. Everyone and everything is covered in white dust.

Not far away, near the railroad tracks, workers pound, file and solder metal into furniture. Elsewhere, young men with cracked, dirt-caked hands sort garbage for recycling.

Filing down aluminum cans

Some of these slum businesses make a good income for their owners. Slums have their share of television sets and well-dressed men and women. And plenty of places to spend money.

There are butcher shops, shoe stores, pharmacies and restaurants. Improvised video theaters, and churches where slum dwellers give weekly donations.

Selling used shoes

Matthias Offodile

November 4th, 2007, 08:01 PM

what did this guy smoke?

ernestombayo7

November 4th, 2007, 08:48 PM

we all know the problems of slums and its not unique to kenya,my problem is this post is clearly in the wrong thread,hows is this related to Economic news headed towards vision 2030,if your soo concerned with slums around the world,then open a thread in the oasis section and name it," Life in the slums."

chui

November 7th, 2007, 11:30 AM

Construction of Sh10bn sugar factory starts

Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 2007/11/07

President Kibaki has commissioned construction of the Sh10 billion sugar factory in the recently created Msambweni District.

The Kwale International Sugar Company factory in Ramisi will employ up to 15,000 people, and support over 1.5 million more, once it becomes fully operational, said the head of state.

President Kibaki made the remarks at Ramisi on Monday during the ground breaking ceremony for the factory, to be run by the Datwani Group of companies from Japan.

“I have no doubt that the new factory will significantly transform the lives of people in this area. The investment, which costs Sh10 billion, will provide employment for thousands of people,” he said.

The Government has stepped up measures to improve sugar cane production by increasing the Sugar Development Fund from Sh200 million in 2002 to Sh3.1 billion currently.

Laden with debts

“As part of the effort to restructure sugar companies, my Government has taken over 17 billion worth of debts owed to the National Bank of Kenya by sugar factories. This measure enabled sugar industries previously laden with debts, to start posting profits,” added President Kibaki.

He noted that the Government acquired over 28,000 acres, whose title deed was held by a bank, for the project. Of this, it has allocated 15,000 acres for the construction of the factory, and development of nucleus farms.

The remaining 13,000 acres will be subdivided into five-acre plots and allocated to squatters to grow sugar cane for the factory. “When this factory is complete, it will have an initial crushing capacity of 5,000 tonnes of cane per day and produce an estimated 120,000 tonnes of sugar per year,” said the head of state.

Kenguy

November 16th, 2007, 10:07 AM

The Standard
Published on November 16, 2007, 12:00 am
By Patrick Beja

Kenya is set to invest in energy projects to put an additional 600 megawatts (mw) in the national power grid.

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) announced that it would invest over Sh80 billion in thermal and geothermal projects in the next seven years to meet the country’s increasing power demand.

ERC chairman, Mr Hindpal Jabbal, and chief executive officer Mr John Mwirichia, said producing power locally would be cheaper than sourcing electricity from neighbouring countries.

Jabbal and Mwirichia were speaking at the Kipevu Kenya Electricity Generating (KenGen) power station in Mombasa, where they led ERC directors on a tour of the facility.

ERC will invest $500 million (over Sh30 billion) in thermal power production and another $750 million (about Sh50billion) in geothermal power.

The geothermal and thermal projects would inject 300mw each into the national power grid in the next seven years to meet rising demand for power.

Jabbal said Kipevu would be the centre of thermal power generation, while Naivasha would host the geothermal power projects.

"We preparing to undertake major thermal and geothermal power generating projects with in Mombasa and Naivasha so as to meet the country’s increasing demand for electricity," Jabbal said.

"The country will also invest in hydro power generation," Jabbal said.

They said buying electricity from Zambia through Tanzania would amount to huge transmitting costs as power lines would cover 1800 km.

Jabbal, however, said Kenya would pursue a power inter-connection programme with East African countries with the aim of achieving a regional power pool even as it generates more electricity locally.

"Local generation of power will go hand in hand with the power inter-connection programme," Jabbal said.

Mwirichia explained that the country’s electricity demands currently stands at 1,050mw.

He said power available stands at 1150mw, representing a 10 per cent surplus.

However, he said, annual power demand was rising at the rate of seven per cent and therefore the country must undertake more power generating projects.

ERC was established under the Energy Act and became operational in July, taking over from the Electricity Regulatory Board. ERC is a single sector regulatory agency with responsibility for economic and technical regulation of both power, renewable energy and down stream petroleum sub-sectors.

Its mandate includes tariff setting and review, licensing, enforcement, dispute settlement and approval of power purchase and network service contracts.

ewangai

November 17th, 2007, 12:25 PM

Economic growth at 7 percent

Story by KENNEDY LUMWAMU
Publication Date: 11/17/2007
Kenya’s economy grew by 7.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year, Finance permanent secretary has said.

Mr Henry Rotich deputy secretary, in the ministry of Finance cuts the tape during opening of Fina Bank, Eldoret branch on Thursday. Photo/JARED NYATAYA
Preliminary data shows that the growth was an increase from 6.6 per cent recorded during the first quarter of this year.

The robust growth, Mr Kinyua said, was the highest in two decades and reflects increased efficiency in the economy and its management.

He said the rise reflected the structural reforms together with prudent fiscal and monetary policies implemented over the last four years.

Mr Kinyua said since 2003, the economy has been enjoying expansion touching on all sectors.

The real Gross Domestic Product, he said, has grown by 6.1 per cent in 2006 up from 0.5 per cent in 2002.

Mr Kinyua said the government expects a further acceleration of between 6.5 to seven per cent.

The PS said total assets of the banking sector grew by nearly 20 per cent from Sh640 billion in 2005 to Sh760 billion last year. He said there was relative stability in inflation, exchange and interest rates.

The government is focusing on reforming the banking sector to ease the legal, regulatory and institutional bottlenecks holding back its development, he said.

Mr Kinyua said the government was aware of constraints facing the growth of the small and medium size enterprises .

It has, therefore, created a legal environment through enactment of an act to stimulate the operation of micro-lending technologies.

“The government is in the process of developing legislation on National Payment System to address issues relating to money transfer and retail payments and help banks extend their financial services to non-banked members of our economy,” he said.

More branches

Mr Kinyua asked banks to open up more branches outside Nairobi to benefit those outside the city.

In a speech read on his behalf by the deputy secretary Henry Rotich during the opening of Fina Bank’s Eldoret branch, the PS said the improved economy was helping more people to seek banking services.

“This is a clear indication that our economy has fully recovered and benefits of economic growth have spread in nearly all parts of our country,” he said.

Present at the function was Fina Bank chief executive officer, Frank Griffiths.

Mr Griffiths said his institution was planning to position itself in the East Africa Region.

He said there were plans to open branches in Uganda and Tanzania.

Matthias Offodile

November 17th, 2007, 01:07 PM

I just stumbled over this pice of information!

French-led consortium wins bid to buy 51 percent of Kenyan state-owned phone company

The Associated Press
Published: November 16, 2007

NAIROBI, Kenya: A French-led consortium has won a bid to buy 51 percent of Kenya's troubled state-owned telecommunications company — the government's latest attempt to privatize Telkom Kenya Ltd.

The France Telecom-led consortium bid US$390 million (€266 million) for a 51-percent share of Telkom Kenya, beating South Africa's Telkom SA Ltd. and India's Reliance Communications Ltd.

"This transaction fits very strongly with France Telecom SA's strategy of targeted development in fast-growing markets," the company said in a statement Friday.

"As mobile penetration is currently lower than 30 percent, the Kenyan mobile market still offers a high growth potential," the statement said, referring to the fact that owning Telkom Kenya comes with a license for the lucrative mobile phone service business.

Telkom Kenya monopolizes the fixed telephone line business in Kenya, which is East Africa's largest economy, but that business has remained stagnant since Kenya liberalized mobile phone services in 2000.

Joseph Kinyua, the top civil servant in the treasury that has supervised the sale of Telkom Kenya shares, said the government was privatizing the company because of fraud in the organization, a bloated staff and its bureaucratic way of doing business.

Telkom Kenya's 17,486 staff account for 49 percent of the company's budget but productivity is low, said Kinyua, the Treasury permanent secretary.

Anne Bouverot of France Telecom said the company has a free hand to retain only the staff it needs.

Investment Secretary Esther Koimett said that within the next three to five years France Telecom will be required to sell an 11-percent holding on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, and the government will sell a further 19 percent at the same time.

Earlier this decade, former President Daniel arap Moi's administration tried to privatize Telkom Kenya, but the process was mired in allegations of corruption.

ewangai

November 19th, 2007, 12:27 PM

Sasini rolls out its first coffee shops in Nairobi
Written by Steve Mbogo

Mr. MeraliNovember 19, 2007: Sasini Tea and Coffee promises to export the African coffee drinking culture to the rest of the world following the launch of its first coffee shop in Nairobi.

The shops will be trading as Savannah Coffee Lounge and the Nairobi outlet will soon be followed by two others in Dubai and London. Sasini is pumping at least Sh100 million in the coffee shops chain in the next 15 months in Nairobi only, where it plans to have three such coffee lounges.

In Nairobi, the coffee shop culture is gaining popularity especially among the emerging middle class who use the outlets for leisure and business meetings.

Companies like Nairobi Java House, which operates seven coffee shops in the capital, have already made their mark with their freshly roasted Kenya coffee.

The other main cafe chain is the Tamarind Group, which operates the Dorman’s Coffee outlets with several branches in Nairobi. Other non-chain coffee shops have also come up in Nairobi.

In Dubai and London, Sasini will square it out with other global brands like World Coffee Lounge, Wally’s World Coffee and Starbucks Coffee, the leading retailer, roaster and brand of speciality coffee in the world.

The Savannah coffee lounges are expected to offer the listed Sasini business line diversification from the growing, processing and packing of tea and coffee.
“The future today is value addition.

We cannot just sell coffee at the auction like we have done at the past. This compliments our packaging business,” said Sameer Merali, a director of the company.

Mr Merali is the son of industrialist Naushad Merali, the chairman of Sameer Investments Group, which owns Sasini and Sameer Tyres, among others.
The company has signalled its global intentions with the recruitment of an export manager.

Initial forays are expected in Russia, European Union, Iran and Pakistan where research done by the company showed rising popularity for packaged Kenya tea and coffee.

“We do not have to sell Kenya abroad; the problem is that Kenyans are not taking advantage of the existing awareness and goodwill about Kenyan produce. Every body knows Kenya,” said Mr Merali.

The Savannah Coffee Lounge concept was developed with an African theme, the first time in the world that a coffee shop has taken the identity to launch into the international market.

The Savannah Coffee Lounge is betting big on the changing trends and lifestyles of Kenyans and international visitors.

The lounges will act as business meeting points to get away from the traditional formal setting. The concept, according to Mr Merali is popular in Dubai where every shopping mall has tens of coffee shops.

“When we went to sell the concept in Dubai, they said ‘oh why buy the idea when we already have all these coffee shops’ but accepted it because of its African theme,” Mr Merali said.

The shops interiors have an African feel including decorations, colour, sculptures and music and wildlife. Plans are afoot to hold music and book launches and related activities within the shops.

The shops seek to replicate the success of Chinese and Indian food culture across the world, evident in Chinese restaurants and India’s chicken tikka outlets in major cities across the world.

Expansion of the coffee chain will be based on a franchise concept with ten weeks needed to replicate one coffee shop.

The company plans to open four to five shops every year starting January across the world.

“Eventually, Savanna coffee lounges will have franchise holders across the globe, built on this unique approach and Kenyan style,” said Mr Merali.

The new business line comes just when the company was given a go ahead to list a Sh600 million corporate bond to finance its expansion into value addition of its coffee, tea and horticultural products.

Part of the money will be used to upgrade its information technology systems and upgrade its coffee mill.

kulani

November 19th, 2007, 01:47 PM

Great move by Sameer, its about time that african countries assert themselves by selling what comes from Africa on the international market. Kenya is a leader in Coffee so it makes sense that they enter the retail sector through coffee chains.

ewangai

November 19th, 2007, 04:43 PM

well chuffed when i saw this as well. finally we can bypass the middle men.

acreed79

November 24th, 2007, 08:31 PM

yeah man if this program is fully completed, multi-nationals will have a tougher choice to make between kenya and SA. right now i dont have the exact # of companies that have chosen over sa partly bcoz of our pathetic state of our roads. RVR needs to get its act together coz thats why they were sold the kenya railways. i dont know about you but this project got me excited.

you forget Ethiopia my friend, they have invested heavily on infrastructure, their freeways and interchanges will soon eclipse, if the momentum is maintained, those of Ivory coast and who knows maybe South Africa. The Dongo kundu by-pass in Mombasa should be a priority for the next government, Mombasa is essentially a sleeping giant, whose time will come.

ewangai

November 28th, 2007, 01:20 PM

Cisco converts Nairobi offices into regional hub
Written by Kui Kinyanjui

Mr MeshkiNovember 28, 2007: Networking infrastructure provider Cisco has converted its Kenya office into a regional hub citing increased demand for its services in Eastern Africa.

Mark de Simone, vice-president for Cisco Middle East and Africa, said growth has been particularly robust in mobile telephony and e-government sub-sectors.

Mr Simone said Cisco would use the Kenyan office to supply ready-made solutions to consumers in Eastern Africa as well as explore new business opportunities in the provision of power solutions and consultancy services to telecoms firms.

“We want to help East Africa leap-frog the digital divide through provision of advanced technology that is available in the more established markets,” he said.

Cisco opened its Kenyan office five years ago with just two employees handling its operations in the entire region. Demand for the company’s services has seen that number grow to 20 with a new target of 80 employees in the next 24 months.

Cisco provides mobile phone firms and data providers with back-end infrastructure and solutions that make their networks communicate with each other.
Mr Simone said the majority of these companies will be facing increased challenges as the communication sector undergoes fundamental changes.

“The future is broadband connectivity for many, and they will require more of our services as they roll out those networks. We see Kenya as a centre of excellence in terms of that support especially in the areas of e-government and mobile telephony,” said Mr de Simone.

Cisco also hopes to reduce existing barriers facing local operators such as financing and investment by brokering funding for select ICT projects. Besides, the company also hopes to contribute to the development of a successful knowledge transfer system using a educated pool of talent.

“Cisco’s Networking Academy programme has enjoyed some remarkable achievements, which we plan to replicate on a regional scale,” said Shahab Meshki, Cisco regional sales manager.

Kenguy

December 2nd, 2007, 12:08 PM

you forget Ethiopia my friend, they have invested heavily on infrastructure, their freeways and interchanges will soon eclipse, if the momentum is maintained, those of Ivory coast and who knows maybe South Africa. The Dongo kundu by-pass in Mombasa should be a priority for the next government, Mombasa is essentially a sleeping giant, whose time will come.

Ive noticed a few major residential projects coming up in Mombasa and its a matter of time for the commercial centre to also see some new developments.
Ive been following some business news that hints at some major projects being funded by local companies like the one below.

Kenya: Investor Buys 24.9 Percent of Equity Bank

The Nation (Nairobi)
15 November 2007
Posted to the web 14 November 2007
Washington Akumu
Nairobi

Equity Bank on Wednesday announced it was ceding a quarter of its shareholding to an international investor.

The deal with Helios Investors, will see the former take up a 24.99 per cent stake in Kenya's fastest growing bank, by acquiring over 90 million new shares of the institution at over Sh11 billion, making it the single largest shareholder.

It is the biggest ever such transaction in Kenya's banking history, which has been marked by low, desultory activity in the mergers and acquisitions stakes, even when bank failures and higher capital rules indicated otherwise.

Helios' entry brings much needed international weight to the Equity brand, being the home of respected big-name investors and funds, which have exclusively punted their money through it in sub-Saharan Africa.

They include UK government-owned CDC Group, United States OPIC, Soros Funds Management, associated with investment guru and philanthropist George Soros and International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the World Bank's private capital arm. To be consummated by the end of the year, according to the promoters, the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval by the Capital Markets Authority and the Central Bank of Kenya.

The deal will be activated through the sale of some 90,516,255 new ordinary shares to the new majority owners at a price of Sh122 per unit, which is a premium on Equity's closing price of Sh119 at the Nairobi Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Equity CEO James Mwangi, who described the deal as a "vote of confidence in the bank's corporate governance", said the cash would be used in the next phase of the bank's expansion into the region and the deepening of its ICT (information and communications technology) platform. "In terms of capitalisation, equity bank, now with a capital base of Sh22 billion becomes the biggest bank not only in Kenya but in the region.
"This now implies that equity is capable of doing a single transaction of up to Sh5 billion, like road building or airport (construction)," said the CEO. Already, the bank is earmarking at least Sh7 billion of the cash raised from the Helios deal into its latest acquisition target, mortgage financier Housing Finance.

Powered by its new capital base, which is estimated to hit Sh22 billion, the bank is targeting to up its branch network from the current 70 to 75 shops next year. It also has its sights on Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the virgin territory of Southern Sudan.

Equity already boasts of some 1.7 million account holders, representing some 41 per cent of all the banked in Kenya.

On Wednesday, Mr Mwangi was keen to stress that the bank will retain its Kenyan identity, with at least 75 per cent remaining in local hands. The newly issued shares will carry the same rights and obligations as existing ones, except they will not earn dividends as and when declared. He also stressed that Helios will not take over the management of the bank and had insisted only on board representation.

However, the bank will seek approval from shareholders - through an extraordinary general meeting - and the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) for listing of the additional shares.

The bank's trading shares gained a shilling to stand at Sh119 yesterday on a volume 146,000 units, against a 12-month high of 150 and low of Sh70. Equity, which only became a bank two years ago, has evolved a unique model based on fidelity to small savers.
^^
Word on the street is that Kenya commercial Bank has simmilar plans on expanding its capital base. Barclays bank has also embarked on a rights issue. By the look of things, these three banks will be used to build some major projects-from road works to huge private ventures in Kenyas major cities.

skipperBill

December 2nd, 2007, 05:39 PM

Excellent thread.
Ive enjoyed reading through it all. Kenya is def.
on her way to greatness. Please continue guys :okay:

chui

December 5th, 2007, 12:28 AM

Top public transport provider unveils Sh1 bn expansion plan

Written by Solomon Mburu

http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=5810

Kenya’s leading transport sacco has launched an ambitious Sh1 billion expansion project aimed at converting its 14-seater vans into mini-buses.

The 2NK transport sacco which has over 500 vehicles plying various routes has brought together a consortium to help it finance the project in line with a Government directive that commuter services move from low capacity to higher capacity vehicles.

The consortium is made up of Equity Bank who are the main financiers, General Motors East Africa Ltd, Invesco Insurance and Yana tyres.
The sacco will also acquire new buses to ply the Nyeri-Mombassa-Malindi route. It also plans to put up a third petrol station in Nyeri town which will also have a complex housing a modern hall, a bank and a supermarket.

According to the sacco’s chairman, Mr Peterson Gathogo, Equity Bank will fund 80 per cent of the project while General Motors East Africa, Yana tyres, and Invesco Insurance will take care of the remaining 20 per cent.

“We have provided the sacco with credit at a concessionary rate of 7.8 per cent interest,” a credit manager at Equity Bank, Mr Daniel King’ori, said.

Interest rates in the banking sector range from 8 to 10 per cent for corporates, with some banks charging as much as 12 per cent on loans.
General Motors East Africa Ltd managing director William Lay says the partnership will help bring locally made vehicles on to Kenyan roads. The company has seen a surge in demand for locally assembled Isuzu matatus in the recent past.

“We are going to produce these buses and minibuses locally to meet the demands of our partners,” said Mr Lay.

Invesco Insurance, which brought together the team, has agreed to provide insurance cover at a subsidised rate. Kigotho said the sacco had undergone remarkable growth in the last few years, adding more items to its growing portfolio. It owns transport vehicles, parcel delivery services, an insurance agency, two petrol stations and a petroleum tanker.

2NK was formed in 1993 by Nissan matatu owners in Nyeri and has so far advanced Sh260 million to members.

ewangai

February 20th, 2008, 10:19 AM

One of My Heroes. Some good news for a change

Equity now boasts of 2 million customers

Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 2/20/2008
Equity Bank has registered substantial growth in its capital base and market share for the 12 years that it has been in operation. This the, bank said, is due to the high number of customers that it has managed to get.

The banks chief executive, Mr James Mwangi, said last year’s growth was especially tremendous because of the high number of clients it roped in. “We opened 60 per cent of our current total bank accounts last year. This brought our customer base to the two million mark,” he said.

Edge up services

Speaking at the African Business Conference in Harvard University, the CEO praised commitment of the bank’s employees noting that they helped edge up its services to customers.

“The commitment of our employees to our organisational culture to value the people has continued to achieve the many dreams we have,” he added. The bank, established 25 years ago as a micro-finance institution, has been on a rapid growth path over the last five years characterised by strategic acquisition of business ventures in the country as well as banking modules for the informal sector.

Last year, the bank through its shareholders approved the acquisition of 25 per cent stake by Helios Investment Partners from the USA. The Sh11 billion transaction injected additional capital to steer further growth.

Currently, Equity boasts of about 47 per cent of the market share, a majority of is customers being on the low-end income scale. Its liquidity level is estimated to be Sh20 billion.

The bank has also rolled out several initiatives to ensure that its services are available to the reach the communities. “We have mobile banking through Land Rovers once a week in certain rural areas. However we are expanding our ATM points to meet the growing demands,” he added.

The 10th annual African Business Conference was held between 15th and 17th February with the theme of controlling our destiny: Celebrating Africa’s Success.

Carver02

March 1st, 2008, 01:46 AM

American TV report on firm industry in Kenya (and elsewhere in Africa).

http://abcnews.go.com/wn/webcast

(scroll for Africa's Hollywood)

Kisumu Ndogo

March 14th, 2008, 09:42 PM

The Kenyan government is pumping millions of dollars into improving the nation's outdated telecom industry.
By Rob Crilly | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 21, 2007 edition

Reporter Rob Crilly discusses efforts to improve Kenya's telecommunications infrastructure.Nairobi, Kenya - The six clocks on the wall track time zones from the US Pacific seaboard, through the Midwest and across the Atlantic to Britain. Twenty or so computers sit idle, headsets resting on mouse pads waiting for the next shift of call center workers.

It could be a phone bank anywhere in the world but for the clock on the far right labeled "Kenya."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1221/csmimg/OCALLCENTER_P1.jpg
"People say to me, 'Wow, this is happening in Kenya? We only think of you for athletics and wildlife,' " says Gilda Odera, managing director of Skyweb-Evans in the heart of the capital, Nairobi. "But people are getting really interested in us."

Her call center and a dozen others are seeds of an industry that the government hopes will put the East African country on equal terms with India as an outsourcing destination.

The government is pumping millions of dollars into improving the country's outdated telecom system in an effort to capitalize on Kenya's large pool of English-speaking graduates.

Eventually it wants Kenya to be as well-known for its call centers as its lions, tea, and coffee.

But for now, companies like Skyweb-Evans are limited by shoddy infrastructure and ferociously expensive internet connections.

Ms. Odera employs more than 40 people in two shifts. They mostly dial Canada to collect market research and polling data, but she says it can be a struggle to break even.

"Sometimes we have clients that need more than 20 seats but, because we haven't been able to ramp up, we haven't been able to take the work, even though it was attractive work," says Odera.

That is all about to change. In February, her company will open a 75-seat call center, expanding capacity more than threefold.

New fiber-optic cable

Last week, the Kenyan government signed an agreement with French-US telecom group Alcatel-Lucent for a fiber-optic cable linking the Kenyan port of Mombasa with the United Arab Emirates.

More important, it will connect East Africa to the rest of the world's Internet capacity and replace the slow and costly satellite links that act as a brake on the country's fast developing industry in business process outsourcing (BPO).

At the signing, Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications, said the connection would allow more ordinary Kenyans to surf the Internet. But the real driving force behind the deal, he said, was the potential for creating jobs in call centers and the rest of the outsourcing industry.

"A year ago we started pushing ourselves as a BPO center," he said. "But if you look at the price and compare it with our competition, we are simply not competitive."

Typical monthly charges are $7,500 for one megabyte of bandwidth. Elsewhere in the world it costs no more than $400.
"If we can get it below $500 for that megabyte we can make ourselves more competitive," said Mr. Ndemo.

Work on the 3,062-mile East African Marine System (Teams) cable is due to begin early in the new year.

The $82-million cable will run from Fujaira, in the UAE, along the seabed of the Gulf of Oman and down the African coastline to Mombasa. It is expected to bring the cost of connectivity down to about $500 per month immediately on completion in January 2009.

In the meantime, the government will use $9 million from a World Bank loan to subsidize connections and kickstart the industry in the new year.

Two other cables are also being planned.

The much delayed East Africa Submarine Cable System will eventually run along the Indian Ocean coastline, connecting 10 African cities with India and Europe. And a third will run from Europe to South Africa.

Ndemo said the cost will continue to come down as Kenya becomes a hub for East Africa, selling bandwidth to neighbors such as Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, off-shoring director of Britain's National Outsourcing Association, says Kenya is putting itself in a strong position.

"In Kenya – and the East African region – they have quite a good recent history of democracy, so it is a stable region and there are lots of well-educated people," he said. "That's a good start, but what they don't have is the infrastructure and I guess that's the importance of this fiber-optics deal."

A promising future

Research by the London-based business analysis group Datamonitor supports the optimistic outlook.

In a report published last year, the group forecast that Africa would see the fastest growth in the number of call centers for the rest of the decade, and singled out Egypt, Botswana, Ghana, and Kenya for particularly rapid expansion.

Egypt already has a booming outsourcing industry with many Western companies operating there.

Meanwhile, Botswana, Ghana, and Kenya – all former British colonies – have the sort of linguistic skills and education systems that make them well placed for call centers, according to the report.

And signs of a shift in the global pattern emerged earlier this year as several Indian companies began looking to outsource their own outsourcing operations, as rising wages and crumbling infrastructure took their toll.

Across town from Skyweb-Evans, Kencall is the posterboy for Kenya's outsourcing industry.

Kencall employs 500 people in a converted avocado warehouse on an industrial estate close to Nairobi's international airport.
http://www.boostdam.net/Kenya-2002/Nairobi-20020114d.jpg

Nicholas Nesbitt, its chief executive, says there is a ready pool of investors looking to enter the Kenyan industry, particularly from South Africa where labor costs are much higher.

"We've had a good three or four very big international call center companies coming through Kenya and kicking the tires," he says.

"As long as we can keep the drumbeat of Kenya as a good and positive place to invest, then when the time comes people will move in."

ernestombayo7

May 29th, 2008, 01:14 PM

Shopping mall boom hits

On the first Sunday of March 2009, Nairobi’s Lang’ata Road will wake up to the sight of a new shopping mall. If all goes according to plan.

It will be the eleventh shopping mall to grace Nairobi’s skyline and potential tenants are already lining up for space.

The mall, which is expected to house about 30 tenants, is evidence of a growing appetite for shopping space in the city. This appetite has seen developers increase their investment in commercial buildings with two other malls expected on Thika and Kiambu roads in the next two years.

These new shopping centres are an indication of increased purchasing power among Kenya’s emerging middle-class with disposable income to spend on luxury goods.

Knight Frank, a property company that is managing most of Nairobi’s malls and overseeing the development of new ones, says it is currently swamped with demand for space both from local and international brands.

Several international brands have expressed interest in the Lang’ata Road mall, including a German car maker who is looking at the property as an avenue to re-enter the Kenyan market.

Cotts, a renowned British furniture brand, has also expressed interest in letting space at the Lang’ata Road mall to establish a foothold in the country. The appetite for space in shopping malls has been whetted by the success of Westgate, the first to attract major international brands.

Located in Westlands, it opened its doors a year ago. This facility, which has been billed as ultra-modern by its developers, boasts of iron wrought railings and a refreshing waterfall at the entrance, has attracted international brand shops ranging from world renowned sports houses Nike and Adidas, to clothes shop United Colors of Benetton.

Converse has also set up camp on the ground floor with international watch maker Rado set to open a store. The mall has also provided space for local brands such as Kazuri, Little Soles, Sir Henry, and Dormans among others to expand, while Artcafe and Johari have made their debut.

Maina Mwangi, the head of property management Knight Frank, says this is Kenya’s first mall to host so many international brands under one roof.

Knight Frank also manages The Junction on Nairobi’s Ngong Road and Crossroads in Karen.

Mr Mwangi says that location is part of the success of the malls business in Nairobi. “The best location is outbound allowing access as people head out of the city,” he said.

Left side

This is why most of the malls are on the left side of the major highways out of the city. According to him a mall on Thika Road has taken a longer time due to scarcity of land on the left side of the road. This side of the highway spots the National Youth Service, General Service Unit and Nakumatt on the left.

“The only available space is near Roysambu, which on the other hand, fails to make much business sense to proprietors who would want to capitalise on prime property,” he said.

For this reason Thika Road’s mall will have to be on the right hand side of the road. These new developments have moved the country far from what it was 10 years ago when it had only two major shopping malls, Sarit Centre in Westlands, and Yaya Centre in Kilimani — some of Nairobi’s high-end districts.

Commercial property development in Westlands has reached a near deadlock due to scarcity of land as it takes a minimum of five acres of land to construct a modern facility.

Population is another major factor that influences the decision to put up a mall in any part of the city. Human traffic determines how popular and viable a mall model is and the potential of its success.

Malls count their success in the conversion rate yielded from the human traffic into the facility.

Dormans operations director, Loise Wood, notes that a key consideration when choosing the malls to set up shops in is always bases on the customer base expected to visit the mall. “Location is very important,” she says.

Dormans operates outlets in Junction, Yaya Centre, Westgate, Sarit, Village Market and Crossroads.

The Junction has managed to be one of the best performing malls with a traffic average of 4,000 on weekdays and twice the number on weekends due to its location. Junction serves the suburban areas of Kilimani, Ngong Road, Lavington, Kileleshwa and even the far off Karen.

Its construction a stone throw away from Prestige also on Ngong Road a few years ago was seen as poor judgement with one expected to fail. However this was not the case, both continued to record good traffic flows and when Crossroads was open almost a year later in Karen traffic did not falter in the other malls.

Junction has however had an impact on traffic flow to Sarit Centre with customers from that side of town choosing not to venture all the way to Westlands. Westgate with its modern trimmings is also giving the older mall a run for its money and is expected to surpass Junction’s traffic in the near future.

Sarit records an average of between 20,000 and 22,000 weekly with weekends, Friday and sometimes Wednesday attracting the highest traffic. To remain relevant the mall has continuously invested on refurbishments of the property giving it a new shine.

Yaya Centre, in Kilimani, also boasts similar traffic as Sarit on a good week. Three years ago it embarked on a major face-lift incorporating more glass displays to give it a modern look.

Consumer market analysts’ note that loyal mall visitors are not only brand conscious, but are attracted by the general ambience.

Anchor shops

However, anchor shops have been identified as the major traffic puller for any given shopping mall globally.

In developed markets apparel stores have served as anchor shops. In Kenya the scenario is different. Supermarkets have proved to be the key to attracting traffic, working as the best anchor shop for the malls.

Sarit Centre and Capital Centre on Mombasa Road have Uchumi supermarket in their premises while Junction, Presitge, Westgate and Crossroads have Nakumatt.

Yaya is home to Chandarana Supermarket, the main traffic puller for the mall. With every anchor shop is a sub-anchor store or stores. Mr Price Homes works for Westgate while Woolworths and Nairobi Sports House work for Yaya.

While Sarit Centre has attracted traffic with the two major Safaricom service centres in its premises. Village Market, the biggest outlet, on the other hand hosts a mix of anchors including Nakumatt and its water slides.

Upon opening its doors Junction had Stataffords, a South African apparel shop, as a sub-anchor however it nearly pulled down the mall. The developers were forced to move fast and opted to reconfigure the space.

Smaller shops were set up which were quickly grabbed by brands like Samsonite, Nike, Best Sports and Mr Price, the remaining space was cut out for a food court.

Most tenants want to be next to the anchor or sub-anchor due to traffic and have to pay a premium for this compared to anchors which pay less due to pull of traffic.

Tenants wishing to rent out space will pay Sh180 per square foot today compared to Sh140 when it was new. Westgate demands between Sh200 and Sh250 while Yaya demands about the same amount.

Due to the sensitivity of the retailing, developers rarely let to first timers who have very small brands. Mr Mwangi said it was mandatory to look into the business model of the shops of which they may vet their accounts before letting out a premise. “Several business have been turned away form the malls, if their marketing plan is not well elaborate, and general awareness of the brands” he adds.

Rarely will a mall extend beyond four stories as most shoppers find it inconveniencing to go up and for this reason most entertainment and food spots are on the top level to attract customers.

According to the director of Yaya, Elizabeth Klem, shops on high level are cheaper since don’t attract as much traffic. This also applies across the board.

“Tenant mix is a major part of malls selling themselves to clients who expect to find a variety to meet their needs,” said Ms Klem.

Sarit management also notes that they have had to control their client mix in order to have a good representation. The mall seeks out potential clients if there is a niche to be filled and sometimes they are approached by the clients.

Tenant mix helps to draw traffic from the widest audience possible and malls in the country have been investing in the right mix to ensure increased traffic.

Entertainment and food courts have become major features as today’s consumer demands for both.

Nu Metro, of South Africa, is one of the brands that has grown at the pace of the malls as they open cinema halls in every new mall erected in the city.

Today consumers can enjoy children’s play areas, live shows and product marketing on the corridors of malls, a variety of food in the food court or themed restaurants, stunning merchandise displays and movies all under one roof.

This is a far cry from the origin of shopping centres which were mainly in the form of open market squares, bazaars and seaport commercial districts centuries away.

The current concept of malls, which features thousands of square foots under one roof, mainly began in the 1920s and have since become a major feature of cities.

Kenyan malls are mainly marketed as one unit and as the city welcomes new malls in its skyline property mangers will have to find creative ways of encouraging customers to step into their properties.

In mature markets malls have gone to the extent of opening interactive websites that clearly inform customers on the units.

ernestombayo7

June 11th, 2008, 04:21 AM

Kibaki launches long-awaited Vision 2030

Major reforms in the key sectors of the economy are expected beginning next month as the long-awaited development blueprint, Vision 2030, comes into effect.Reforms are expected in priority sectors like agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, infrastructure and financial services.

Vision 2030, which contains the major policy changes and targets, was officially launched by President Kibaki on Tuesday.

Top on the agenda will be transforming the agricultural sector to achieve an average growth rate of seven per cent by 2012, which will add Sh80 billion to the Gross Domestic Product. The sector currently accounts for 24 per cent of the GDP.

Reforms targeting cooperatives, research institutions and regulatory bodies will be undertaken to increase the productivity of key crops and livestock.

Idle land will be utilised for crop and livestock production in the next five years and an additional 600,000 to 1.2 million hectares will be put under irrigation.

In the manufacturing sector, the development blueprint targets increasing its contribution to GDP by at least 10 per cent per annum in the first phase which begins next month and ends in 2012.

“The other target is to raise the share of Kenyan products in the regional market from seven to 15 per cent and developing niche products with which Kenya can achieve a global competitive edge.”

To increase the export of manufactured goods, the Government plans to establish special zones and parks to promote export-oriented firms.

However, according to Planning minister, Mr Wycliffe Oparanya, a whopping Sh1.6 trillion worth of investments will be needed in the first phase of the implementation period.

In the tourism sector, the Government will focus on four key products, namely beach tourism, safaris to premium parks, resorts in underutilised parks and conference tourism.

Focus on the key products, according to the document, will increase the number of international visitors from the current 1.6 million to 3 million by 2012.

President Kibaki expressed confidence that the country will achieve the targets.

The President said the vision will see Gross Domestic Product per capita increase to over $3,000 (Sh189,000) or six times the current rate.

“By the year 2030 we expect to be a country that will be so well integrated through good infrastructure of roads, railways, waterways and airports that it will be impossible to refer to any part of our country as being remote,” he said.

The vision will be implemented in successive five-year medium-term plans, until its conclusion in 2030.

The document, launched amid pomp and ceremony, will succeed the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation.

The new development blueprint is anchored on three major pillars: economic, social and political.

The economic pillar aims to improve the prosperity of all Kenyans by achieving a 10 per cent economic growth rate by 2012.

The political pillar aims at achieving a democratic political system that respects the rule of law and protects the rights and freedoms of Kenyans while the social pillar seeks to build a just and cohesive society in a clean and secure environment.

President Kibaki described the vision as the last major effort in eradicating poverty, illiteracy and disease as the founding fathers had pledged.

He said the Government had prepared the groundwork for the vision in the last five years “and I have no doubt in my mind that Kenyans will rise to the occasion”.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga said his office will ensure all ministries dutifully implemented the flagships highlighted in Vision 2030.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said the launch of the document was a major challenge for the Grand Coalition Government.

Skyprince

June 11th, 2008, 12:56 PM

Orite, Lets don't talk about politics.

nairoberry

June 11th, 2008, 01:30 PM

So are you optimistic with Kibaki now, ernest ?
:weird::weird::weird::weird:

dude, leave politics out of this

Skyprince

June 11th, 2008, 02:22 PM

lol ! :D :D ( if you know what ernest told me personally when we met ...)

Xusein

June 12th, 2008, 06:03 AM

Great stuff...Kenya has so much potential to be an African lion, if not already. I hope for the best. :D

-From a forumer from a neighboring nation who is looking at this with a little envy. ;)

nairoberry

June 12th, 2008, 06:25 AM

lol ! :D :D ( if you know what ernest told me personally when we met ...)

i got you skyprince. check your PM.

Skyprince

June 12th, 2008, 01:38 PM

Great stuff...Kenya has so much potential to be an African lion, if not already. I hope for the best. :D

-From a forumer from a neighboring nation who is looking at this with a little envy. ;)

Isn't Kenya's potential lie on its progressive and dynamic people ? I've met a lot of Kenyans, I had lot of fun talking to Kenyans they know a lot about diferent issues not like people here in Asia :D Ask any Africans about Asia many of them can explain from A to Z about Asian countries, but if you ask any Asians about Africa they have nothing to say. Being Asian, I feel that this really must be corrected.

i got you skyprince. check your PM.

PM checked ;)

Alex Roney

June 12th, 2008, 02:09 PM

nairoberry

June 12th, 2008, 02:16 PM

Alex Roney

June 12th, 2008, 02:22 PM

Here's a good article from my faivorite columnist Thomas Friedman.

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The African Connection
NAIROBI, Kenya

Was anybody out there checking out jobs with the U.S. post office in 2005? Do you remember when you called that 800 number to get details? Sure you do. Do you remember how the voice on the other end of the line helping you had this soft British accent with a slight African lilt? Do you know why? Because you were routed to a call center in Kenya.

So maybe you weren’t looking for a job, but you had just bought a new computer. And when you turned it on, you clicked the icon for one of America’s biggest Internet service providers to get broadband access. But you needed someone to talk you through getting it connected — so you called that 800 number. The techie who helped you was also a Kenyan at that same Nairobi call center.

It’s called KenCall. It is located in an abandoned avocado processing plant, and it is the largest of Kenya’s blooming outsourcing call centers, with almost 300 employees and annual revenues that have grown to $3.5 million since it opened three years ago. If you’re surprised it’s here, so are most of its customers.

“I was actually talking to someone in America who had just given birth and she was ordering high-speed D.S.L. for her new residence — three or four hours after the birth,” said Nina Nyongesa, a 25-year-old KenCall supervisor and I.T. graduate of Nairobi University. “She said to me, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘Nairobi.’ And she said, ‘Are you sure?’ And she was really happy — so she bought one for herself, one for her mother and one for her mother-in-law. So instead of making one sale I made three.”

KenCall is one small reason that Kenya’s economy grew 6 percent last year. Yes, Kenya still has all the ills of other African states — from AIDS to abject poverty. But Kenya also now has a democratically elected government that is learning to get out of the way of Kenya’s entrepreneurs and to get them the bandwidth they need to compete globally. It’s way too early to declare Kenya an economic “African Tiger,” but something is stirring here that bears watching — and KenCall is emblematic of it.

The company was started by the half-English, half-Kenyan Nicholas Nesbitt, his brother Eric and his brother-in-law Stephen Liggins. Nicholas Nesbitt and Liggins had made successful careers on Wall Street. But after Kenya’s democratic elections in 2002, they decided to come home and see if they could do good for their country and for themselves by taking advantage of Kenya’s large pool of educated, English-speaking talent to break into the outsourcing industry.

There was one big problem. Kenya, like the rest of East Africa, was not connected to any global undersea fiber-optic cable that would give it the cheap high-speed bandwidth of the scale needed by call centers. The Internet here all came via satellite, which is more expensive to begin with and was made even more so by the fact that the Kenyan state phone company had a monopoly.

In a rare move in Africa, the Kenyan government decided to give up that monopoly and open competition for satellite-provided bandwidth — even though it meant laying off 6,000 government workers. The competition made KenCall’s business possible. The Kenyan government is now working feverishly to get connected to the global fiber-optic network, via an undersea cable, which would make bandwidth here cheap and plentiful enough for all sorts of outsourcing.

KenCall opened in late 2004, taking orders for U.S. late-night TV commercials. Its Kenyan operators sold Yellow Page ads, security alarms and mortgages. But it has since grown its business to include data-entry for one of the premier Wall Street credit-rating firms and handling service calls for global banks and insurance companies. For an economy dependent on coffee, safaris and flowers, this is a real change of pace.

“The concept of connecting to the outside world and attracting investors from the outside — that has not been here before,” remarked Stephen Ogunde, another KenCall supervisor.

KenCall’s employees can make in a month what half of Kenya’s population makes in a year: around $350. They get health care and free transportation.

Don’t give up on Africa. KenCall is a reminder that with a little less government regulation, a little more democracy and a lot more bandwidth, African entrepreneurs can play this game too. “In the old days, ‘landlocked’ meant you didn’t have a harbor,” said Mr. Nesbitt. “In the new days, it means you don’t have fiber broadband to the rest of the world. This whole market here is just waiting for that.”
http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/04/thomas-l-friedman-african-connection.html

Xusein

June 12th, 2008, 08:44 PM

Isn't Kenya's potential lie on its progressive and dynamic people ? I've met a lot of Kenyans, I had lot of fun talking to Kenyans they know a lot about diferent issues not like people here in Asia :D Ask any Africans about Asia many of them can explain from A to Z about Asian countries, but if you ask any Asians about Africa they have nothing to say. Being Asian, I feel that this really must be corrected.

I agree 100% :yes:

Kenguy

June 15th, 2008, 07:17 PM

Kenguy

June 15th, 2008, 07:44 PM

The saddest thing about whats really happened in Kenya lately is that a lot of foreigners have lost hope in what was one of Africa's next best things. Kenya's potential unlike practically every other African country isn't so much on its commodities but it's human capital. It has a very educated base of people, the problem is that the conditions in Kenya aren't attractive for them to stay. A Mormon friend of mine came back from Kenya 2 weeks back and gave a presentation on healthcare in that country, he states that every month over 50 doctors leave Kenya for the West. That said their seems to be an up coming I.T outsourcing sector developing and Kenya seems like the most attractive destination.

Im in Kenya at the moment and it seems everyone wants to move on. At least Kenyans now don't take the peace and stability they enjoyed for granted anymore. The chaos has made everyone resolve to build a stronger nation and address the main causes of what transpired, especially poverty.

As for IT, I noticed they have been wiring a good number of neighbourhoods in major towns with fibre optic cables and eliminated taxation on anything related to computers. Lets wait and see how things will turn out.

As for doctors, Ive noticed that most private medical schools in the East African region are heavily populated by Kenyans especially Uganda and Tanzania (some have 80% of their students coming from Kenya). add this to the number in many other countries eg. Britain and the local medical schools within Kenya. Hopefully, they will help fill the deficit but 50 is still a large number.

Kenguy

June 19th, 2008, 02:14 PM

Uchumi search for partner nets eight bids

Written by Michael Omondi

June 19, 2008:

Uchumi Supermarkets’ search for a strategic investor has began to take shape with an announcement that eight investors have placed bids for a piece of the retail chain.

The equity partner, who is set to join the firm in August, is expected to inject about Sh800 million to shore up Uchumi’s shareholder funds that have suffered erosion in the recent past.

The bids offer a ray of hope to shareholders in the retail chain that nearly collapsed in 2006 when it closed shop under the weight of debts owed to banks and suppliers, before it reopened under receivership later.

Uchumi receiver manager Jonathan Ciano yesterday said that of the eight bidders, four are local investors and the remaining four are international investors. He refused to disclose their identities but said four are supermarkets (two of them foreign) while the rest are institutional investors.

“We are assessing the investors and will present our report to the advisory committee next week,” Mr Ciano said on the telephone.

Uchumi has recently seen its revenue grow after years of loss making, buoyed by a sharp rise in sales. The chain reported net earnings of Sh113 million in the nine months to March on revenues of Sh5.2 billion — breaking a five year loss making stretch.

The retail chain is betting its stay on the recovery path on increased sales and stringent cost cutting measures. This is to happen through a broad turnaround plan that will see it open more branches in an attempt to regain control of lost market share.

The retail is also planning to open more branches in Kenya as well as spread its tentacles into Uganda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan over the next three years.

Aggressive growth
This aggressive growth plan is expected to push the chain to the number two position, behind Nakumatt Supermarket, after being relegated to third position by Nakumatt and Tuskys.

The partner is expected to play a crucial role in this turnaround plan by injecting cash and offering management experience. The retail chain is in dire need for the financial muscle to pull the company out of debt and pave way for its return to the trading floor at the Nairobi Stock Exchange, from where it was suspended after sliding into insolvency in 2006.
^^
Expanding to Southern sudan???

nairoberry

June 24th, 2008, 12:39 AM

An Sh8 billion project that promises to change the face of Athi River town and create over 10,000 jobs begins next month.

The project is the first in line under a deliberate government shift towards services, notably Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

Already Sh900 million has been earmarked for starting the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Park from where Kenyans will offer telecommunications services to employers overseas.

The public - private partnership only needs a Cabinet approval before being rolled out. It is projected to be operational in three years, according to the ministry of information which is implementing it through the ICT board. “We have already done the concept paper, the feasibility study and the cabinet memo.

We have also marketed the idea to various stakeholders and multinational companies. We start implementation as soon as the cabinet memo is approved,” said the Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo.

The park is expected to house multinational ICT companies undertaking the BPO services, Software development and computer assembly. The government aims to create 10,000 jobs at the facility, attract foreign investors and allow for skill transfer.

The 2007/2008 report on global offshore services by CB Richard Ellis, international property consultants, rank Kenya and Egypt as the most promising BPO destination in Africa followed by Ghana and Botswana.

A key challenge facing the government is securing the 2,000 acres needed for the project in a vicinity where fragmentation has been the order of the day. It has been proposed that some of the land currently owned by the Export Promotion Zone Authority be put to use and the rest be bought from the public.

The EPZ owns a total of 1,123 acres which means if the government goes with its 2,000 acres plan it will have to buy 877 acres from the public. Currently, parcels of land at the Mlolongo area along the Mombasa highway are going for between Sh5 million and Sh9 million per acre. A parcel at Athi River, now renamed Mavoko, goes for Sh2 million while those in the interior are selling at Sh350,000 per acre.

Under the plan, the government would provide the land and infrastructure, water, fibre optic, roads and energy whereas the investors provide the real estates and the enterprises. Mavoko town clerk Tubmun Otieno said the options on land ranged from direct purchase from the private sector to leasing it from the EPZ.

Mr Otieno said the BPO park would open new business opportunities within the area, especially in real estate and social amenities. Although there are a number of housing projects coming up in the area, housing units that can cater for the middle and upper income groups are not adequate. Mr Otieno said the government should look for a solution to the water scarcity before setting up the facility in the locality.

“ We are currently relying on water supply from Nairobi which is not even sufficient for the current population at the moment” said Mr Otieno. ICT board chairman Paul Kukubo said the ICT board would work with experts on the various models of managing the BPO park and pick the one with the most in terms of value addition, cross sector linkages and effectiveness.

Egypt is has a park on 600 acres through a similar ownership arrangement the government owns 20 per cent while private sector has 80.

Kwame

September 1st, 2008, 11:47 AM

Kenya: 2,000 Houses Set to Be Demolished in Slums

The Nation (Nairobi)

12 August 2008
Posted to the web 13 August 2008

Kenneth Ogosia
Nairobi

More than 2,000 houses will be demolished in various slums.

Housing minister Soita Shitanda on Tuesday said that the ministry had put in place a master plan for the construction of affordable houses in 90 urban centres countrywide.

In Nairobi, the ministry will build 600 houses in Kibera, 1,600 in Shauri Moyo, 445 in Mavoko, 800 in Ngara and 296 in Kileleshwa.

These will be occupied by those displaced from slums and civil servants whose dreams of buying the houses they are living in were shattered when the Cabinet cancelled a deal to sell them to sitting tenants a month ago.

He said the occupants would be allowed to lease out some rooms to help them pay the mortgage.

Mr Shitanda said the houses in Kibera would be occupied by residents of Soweto East whose shanties would be demolished to open up land for 1,000 high-rise houses.

"These old buildings will be demolished once new houses to accommodate people in Soweto East, Shauri Moyo, Starehe and Ngara are completed. Modern houses will then be built," Mr Shitanda said.

He said that displaced slum dwellers will occupy the high rise houses built under the Kenya slums upgrading programme while the civil servants housing scheme will cater for Government workers who will buy houses for as low as Sh500,000 through a mortgage scheme attracting interest of five percent.

Kenyans in the diaspora and foreign investors will benefit from a waiver in excise duty on building materials.

Mr Shitanda said money to repair blocked sewers, reconnect electricity in estates and restore sanitation standards in towns would be raised through an infrastructure fund of Sh500 million and the launch of housing bonds worth Sh5 billion.

A Housing Bill will be introduced to remove bottlenecks as currently, housing policies are run by the Public Works, Environment, Local Government, Nairobi Metropolitan and Public Health and Sanitation ministries.

From AllAfrica (http://allafrica.com/stories/200808130593.html)

nairoberry

October 16th, 2008, 12:44 AM

Pioneer malls set to grace Eastlands

Westlands has The Mall and Sarit Centre. Mombasa Road has Capital Centre, Ngong Road has The Junction, Nakumatt Prestige and Uchumi Hyper, while the upmarket Gigiri boasts the Village Market.

The Village Market shopping mall in Nairobi’s upmarket Gigiri offers a luxurious shopping experience

These are some of Nairobi’s most popular shopping malls that have gained increasing popularity over the years and given a fresh impetus to the shopping experience. But Eastlands, which is patronised by Nairobi’s 2.5 million residents, mainly from low to middle income class, is a world apart. Although shopping arcades dot areas like Eastleigh, they are not the archetypal malls. Perhaps the biggest inhibitor for big time investors is that most areas in Eastlands lack prerequisite infrastructure.

Buruburu shopping centre for instance, has grown immensely with the setting up of Tuskys supermarket, which has a few supporting shops and restaurants. However, the scale of this arcade is modest as is the variety of services and goods provided there. This will, however, soon be a thing of the past as developers prepare to break ground with pioneer malls.

Housing Finance is finalising plans for a mall in Komarock Estate while a private developer — Virgin Estates Ltd — will soon be erecting another one in Sosian Estate, past Jacaranda Estate on your way towards Kayole. It is expected that the malls will transform the socio-economic landscape.

Urban development

Wachira Njuguna, the Executive Chairman of Virgin Estates, says his inspiration to venture East was inspired out of a deep-seated need to incorporate the region in urban development trends. "There is no reason why Eastlands should be left out," he says. "Presently, children are forced to traverse the city when they want to watch big screen movies or see an escalator."

Njuguna is positive that the Sh271million project dubbed ‘East Gate, The Good Life’, will encourage other developers to venture eastwards and put up more appealing buildings.

"Apart from offering a convenient shopping experience, the mall will also give Eastlands a glimpse of glamour through modern architecture that provides an orderly and relaxing urban environment," he says.

The Mall in Westlands is one of Kenya’s two pioneer malls. The other is the Yaya Centre.

Part of the success of any mall is pegged on the population of the catchment area and how well they can access it. Njuguna explains that his four-floor shop ping complex will be strategically located between Donholm, Komarock, Umoja and Jacaranda estates, meaning it will ride on the untapped population of 600,000 living within a three-kilometre radius.

"The surrounding estates are home to 120,000 households each spending an average of Sh5,000 per month on fast moving consumable goods," says Njuguna. "We are targeting 20 per cent of the Sh600 million spent in these catchments."

The East Gate mall will occupy two acres of land with a total space of 78,091 sq.ft. to let out. Sarit Centre in comparison has a daunting 215,300 sq.ft. of shopping space while the Capital Centre offers 122,200 sq.ft.

Rents for commercial space in Sosian Estate range between Sh40 per sq.ft. (Naivas Supermarket) and Sh65 per sq.ft. (Kenchic).

The mall will retail space from Sh45 per sq.ft. to Sh60 per sq.ft.

Economies of scale

In high-end areas, malls let space at much higher prices. The Junction, for instance, rents out at Sh180 per sq.ft. while Westgate and Yaya Centre demand between Sh200 and Sh250 per sq.ft.

Anchor shops and fine ambience are known attractions for shoppers. In Kenya, supermarkets that have a strong brand become the kicker as they attract a pool of loyal clientele. Once inside, shoppers get to discover small stores within the vicinity. Sarit Centre and Capital Centre have Uchumi supermarkets in their premises as their kickers, while The Junction, Village Market, Prestige, Westgate and Crossroads have the Nakumatt chain of supermarket stores. Yaya Centre in Kilimani houses Chandarana supermarket. Only The Mall in Westlands records a loud absence of a super-market.

Among the anchor tenants of the new mall in Eastlands will be Tuskys, Kenya Commercial Bank, Safaricom, Zain, Bata, AAR and Kenchic.

Economies of scale will inevitably bring prices down. However, there is a possibility that the mall will strangle a number of surrounding small-scale enterprises considering residential estates and commercial buildings surround the mall’s site.

In order to adapt to the fast pace synonymous with Eastlands, Njuguna explains they have included clauses in the lease that will encourage entrepreneurs to operate till midnight everyday. "The project is diverse in nature to reflect the aspirations of the people of Eastlands."

Other recreational facilities that the new mall will provide include a health and recreation club, movie theatres, a hospital, a food court, and a vast rooftop for children to play. Breaking away from normal practice, this mall will also have an alcohol-free dance hall for the vibrant youth and an open-air concert space. "We have done this to tap the rich artistic talent and entertainment culture in the area," explains Njuguna.

Proliferation of malls

Barely 10 years ago, there were only two shopping malls in Nairobi — Yaya Centre and The Mall. But in the last few years there has been a proliferation of shopping malls. The Sh700million Junction mall has daily traffic averaging at 4,000 people which doubles during weekends. It serves the suburban areas of Kilimani, Ngong Road, Lavington, Kileleshwa and Karen.

Sarit Centre and Yaya Centre record an average of 20,000 daily, with the busiest days being witnessed on Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends.

Developers rarely let out space to first timers in business because they ride on the awareness and popularity of the large businesses. Movie theatres, entertainment spots and food courts are often strategically housed on the top floors that most people would otherwise avoid.

Variety in the tenant base is also crucial to the success of a mall. Customers expect a one-stop shop in a mall and as a result, such shopping centres must have good circulation for pedestrians, interesting shop fronts, clear sightlines, lively streets with movement, colour, shop front exposure, a pleasant environment and good maintenance in order to draw customers.

Communication also adds a sense of entitlement for the customers, which is why the popular malls have developed interactive websites to ease communication with customers.

Xusein

October 16th, 2008, 10:17 AM

Question...how far is Eastlands from Eastleigh? Apparently, that's the Somali hub of Nairobi or something.

Kenguy

October 16th, 2008, 03:25 PM

Question...how far is Eastlands from Eastleigh? Apparently, that's the Somali hub of Nairobi or something.

^^
Eastlands comprises of a number of middle and lower income suburbs and Eastleigh is one of them. You are very right, its the somali hub of Nairobi (Little Mogadishu.) and it has the highest density of mini-malls than any other part of the city.

I never thought anyone would ever put up malls in Eastlands. Thanks for the article Nairoberry.

Xusein

October 17th, 2008, 05:33 AM

Thanks for that, Kenguy. ;)

Nobleskills

November 18th, 2008, 11:11 AM

Kenya's first 12 lane 45KM super highway starts. The project linking industrial town of Thika to Nairobi will ease the traffic congestion along the busiest highway in East and Central Africa. All the round abouts will be replaced by over passes and inter-changes. The project is a big step forward by the government towards Vision 2030. :banana::banana:

nairoberry

November 18th, 2008, 08:50 PM

Kwame

November 18th, 2008, 10:54 PM

Sh27 billion for Nairobi-Thika superhighway
NAIROBI, November 14 - Construction of the expanded Nairobi-Thika Highway at a cost Sh27 billion after weeks of controversial demolitions to pave way for the work finally commenced on Friday.

Roads Minister Chris Obure who spoke during the signing of contract agreements for the construction at Kasarani said the development of the project was one of the largest ever undertaken in Kenya since independence.

“The construction of the Nairobi-Thika Highway has been made possible with the support of the African Development Bank who jointly with the government of Kenya is co-financing this mega project,” Mr Obure disclosed.

He said the project was part of the wider achievement of Kenya’s Vision 2030 with the help of development partners in the maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of road infrastructure in the country.

The Minister revealed that construction project would be carried out in three separate contracts that were allocated to M/S China Wu Yi Company, M/S Synohydro Corporation Limited and M/S Shengli Engineering Construction Group which are all International companies from the Republic of China.

“The signing of these contracts is a major milestone as it marks the beginning of the implementation of the Nairobi-Thika Highway improvement project,” he said.

He added: “The construction is expected to be carried out in three stages, the first will cover the section between Uhuru Highway and Muthaiga, the second contract is between the Muthaiga round about to Kenyatta University while the third from Kenyatta University to Thika,” Mr Obure explained.

The Nairobi-Thika highway expansion project which is expected to take 30 months and is due for completion in August 2011 covers a total length of 50.4 kilometers that also include service and links.

The highway which forms part of a link between Nairobi with Northern Kenya and neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia will be upgraded from a four lane dual carriageway to an eight lane carriageway with full access control and grade separations.

Other facilities expected to be provided within the project include inter-changes which will replace roundabouts, flyovers, under-passes, bus bays and footpaths that will improve mobility and transport linkages between the Nairobi Metropolitan area and satellite towns located on the highway.

Mr Obure said the government was enforcing plans to decongest the Central Business District (CBD) which contributes traffic congestion on major roads within the city such as Nairobi-Thika Highway, Outering Road, Uhuru Highway, Haileselassie Road, Mbagathi Way, Langata Road and Waiyaki Way that on average are used by 70,000 vehicles per day.

Present at the same venue was Nairobi Metropolitan Assistant Minister and Kasarani MP Elizabeth Ongoro who urged the contractors to involve the youth in constructing the super highway that will help them get job opportunities.

“I want to ask the contractors of every stage to involve the youth actively as they construct the roads that pass through the various constituencies since they will give them a platform to own the projects hence an opportunity for employment,” Mrs Ongoro said.

Assistant Minister for Roads Dr Wilfred Machage said the government was committed to improve urban transport infrastructure facilities in the country which was a major challenge to many developing countries towards economic development.

“We want Kenya to be among the fastest growing economies in Africa since Nairobi city is facing many urban problems caused by high population growth which is not matched with the development of infrastructure,” Mr Machage explained.

The government is also expanding the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Uhuru Highway, Museum Hill and Gigiri roads which are about 22 kilometers with an additional extra lane on both sides of the road, apart from improving the drainage system.

Capital News (http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Local/Super-highway-moves-an-inch-2230.html)

nairoberry

November 19th, 2008, 04:17 AM

thanx for the article crash

ewangai

November 19th, 2008, 11:17 AM

its 8 lane not 12 as far as i can see. still impressive though.

Nobleskills

November 19th, 2008, 02:47 PM

Kenya Railways Coperations is leasing its 63 acres piece of land between Uhuru Highway/Haile Selasie Avenue Round about and Upper Hill to an investor to develop THE GOLF CITY. It comprises 5-star hotel, shopping malls, High speed railway line linking JKIA to the city centre, 9-hole international golf course and Imax Theatre (the first of its own in Africa).
The winning bid must have at least US$ 300 Million.

chui

November 20th, 2008, 09:20 AM

http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11322&Itemid=5812

November 19, 2008:

South Africa’s Standard Bank Group has moved its global Government and International Organisations (GIO) office to Nairobi in a shift that points to the growing prominence of the public sector as a cash cow for financial advisory firms.

The GIO office which was initially run from South Africa, now seeks to capitalise on Nairobi’s strategic location as the headquarters to a number of development agencies and development finance institutions.

Nobleskills

November 20th, 2008, 09:53 AM

Kenya will be the next African lion. It is the fastest rising investment destination in Africa.

BUTEMBO21

November 20th, 2008, 09:56 AM

Mwafrika

November 22nd, 2008, 06:04 AM

The new scramble for African homes (Sunday Times UK)

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/mwafrika/scramble001.jpg

At dawn, when the water is calm, we go to the beach, and it is breathtaking,” Al Petrie says. “At night, under a full moon, we stand by the pool or on the beach and stare at the African sky. You feel very small and very privileged, and there is nowhere else in the world you want to be.”

The white-sand beach that Petrie, 38, who starred in the BBC period drama Cranford, likes to contemplate, and his children - Gus, 8, and twins Cal and Brodie, 5 – like to “ferret” around on, is just 30 yards from his holiday home in Watamu, a small, laid-back fishing village on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.

Their “great big adventure” began in 2005, when Petrie and his wife, the actress Lucy Scott, 42, who played Charlotte Lucas in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, went on holiday to Kenya for the first time. Like many Britons before them, they fell in love with the romance of Africa and, in something of a modern-day colonial twist, made inquiries about property prices.

The couple bought a 1960s house, “in an extraordinary location, but in a sorry state, with a rather dark, jungly garden”, for £190,000. Petrie took on the project, galvanising a local workforce to remodel it into a four-bedroom, four-bathroom villa with an open-plan living room and kitchen. They finished the job within six months and kept to the £40,000 budget. “We call it Arcadia, our imagined place of rural bliss,” Petrie says. “That said, it is still an investment – it wasn’t just a question of splashing money about.”

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/mwafrika/scramble002.jpg

They let the house out for 25 weeks a year (enough to pay for the permanent staff of three, the garden and the annual repainting made necessary by the strong, salty wind), and any profit goes towards flights, which cost about £2,000 for the family. It is possible to fly direct to Mombasa – 90 minutes’ drive on a newly tarmacked road – or you can go via Nairobi to Malindi, 10 miles up the coast. Petrie and his clan can leave their home in Tooting, south London, at 5pm and be relaxing in the pool by midmorning.

The Kenyan coast has long attracted Britons in search of hot sun (temperatures are in the 30s for most of the year), clear turquoise seas and something a little exotic – Mombasa is definitely not Malaga, and visitors to the region are advised to take antimalarial drugs.

Gradually, the old colonial class that retired to the seaside villages and resorts of Malindi, Lamu, Kilifi and Pemba is being replaced by a generation of younger, wealthier professionals, who are buying up crumbling houses and scruffy plots by the ocean and creating luxurious holiday homes.

“Prices have risen by about 20% a year for the past five years,” says Ben Wood-hams, director of the Knight Frank agency in Nairobi. “There is a huge demand for high-quality property by the ocean, not just from the British and Europeans, but from the growing middle class in Kenya.”

Malindi is an old trading town established in the 12th century, with an air-port served by a shuddering 20-seater plane. Vasco da Gama stopped off on his way to India in 1498, and it was the first port of call for the British and Italian tourists who swarmed to this coast in the 1980s. Today, the Swahili-style bungalows are a little scruffy, but regeneration is under way. Flavio Briatore, managing director of the Renault Formula One team, who already owns a grandiose villa in the town, has plans to create a “billionaire’s paradise” of flats and villas.

Further north lies Lamu, a tiny speck of an island and the oldest port on the East African coast. It has long been a destination for aristocrats and Hollywood stars – among them Princess Caroline of Monaco and her husband, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, who owns three properties in the area.

In the old town, a narrow, higgledy-piggledy place with a skyline of minarets that was added to Unesco’s list of conservation sites in 2001, you can still pick up a cramped townhouse for £20,000, but it would need a lot of work, and being in the (relatively) bustling centre doesn’t suit everyone. Instead, most buyers head two miles south to Shela beach, where one can spot the domed, thatched makuti roofs poking out through the tropical palms. House prices reflect the international demand: a family villa sleeping eight will start at £800,000.

New developments are springing up along Kenya’s 330-mile coast, targeting overseas buyers who want long-haul luxury – and an investment. In Watamu, work has begun, using rickety scaffolding, with cement mixed by hand and passed in small bowls down a chain of blue-clad builders – on Medina Palms, one of the country’s few purpose-built residential oceanside resorts.

It is the vision of Nigel and Lesley-Anne Rowley, developers from Gloucestershire.The seven-acre plot, set amid tropical palms on a powder-white beach, will feature 50 pink-walled properties, all modelled on the Rowleys’ holiday home, the Dhow House. Among those who have put down a deposit is Sonia Irvine, sister of the racing driver Eddie Irvine and a VIP party planner for the F1 circuit, who has opted for one of the best ocean-view plots. Prices start at £395,000 for the four-bedroom lodges, due to be finished by 2010, rising to £1.3m for a six-bed villa. There are also 33 flats, with prices from £150,000 for a two-bedder with garden.

Medina Palms, in common with almost all new holiday resorts aimed at the well-heeled buyer with a conscience, has green credentials: solar energy will heat water; the pool pump system will be wind-powered; bio-digesters will recycle grey water for use in the gardens; and the service charges, which cover staff and a chef, include a donation to local charities and the Born Free Foundation.

The desire to give back, rather than just “fly and flop”, has led growing numbers of homeowners to invest in projects to protect turtles or big game in the national parks. Others, like Petrie and Scott, are looking to set up links between their children’s London school and those in Watamu; one owner is funding an orphanage.

“There is a huge demand for homes by the ocean,” says Ivor Engel, director of Watamu Property Services, who is jointly marketing Medina Palms. Since moving to a “shack” in Watamu in 2000, Engel and his wife, Sara, have gained first-hand experience of dealing with the buying and selling process, as well as Kenyan bureaucracy (much of it inherited from the British empire), which led them to set up a business managing holiday homes.

“Only a handful of properties come to the market each season,” he says. “You can pick up a small house for £180,000, but anything with a halfway decent sea view will start closer to £400,000. It is not unusual to see a price tag of £1m for the best houses.”

The demand is mirrored in the holiday lettings market: “When it’s going well, the rental market is great,” says Engel, who is also handling the letting side of Medina Palms. “You can be fully booked about 10 weeks of the year and average £20,000 per annum. But the holiday market can be easily bruised.” That was the case at the beginning of this year, when violence flared up in the months following the election last December, which saw riots in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slums and more than 1,000 people killed. Tourist numbers fell and traffic on Engel’s web-site dropped by 30% between January and May – even though the holiday homes he lets are almost 300 miles away on the coast. Since July, it has been up by 20% on last year.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/mwafrika/scramble003.jpg

Even on the coast, security is an issue, and worries have further increased after the deaths of two Britons during robberies at their homes this year, including Graham Warren, who was killed in Watamu in January. His widow plans to stay in Kenya.

All thoughts of corrupt governments, tribal tensions and violence may seem far away when sitting on the roof terrace sipping a sundowner, the sea breeze providing some respite from the heat.

Leave the somnolent luxury of the villa, with its staff, pool and privacy, however, and you face an immediate reality check.

Almost half of the Kenyan population lives below the food poverty line, according to British government figures. The roads are edged with dusty red paths busy with women carrying firewood and water, men cycling to and from work, wandering goats and cows, and chickens pecking in the dust.

Most of the larger properties will have sophisticated alarm systems, and almost all households employ an askari – typically a Masai, who, bejewelled and dressed in red robes, will stand guard with a long stick, accompanied by an aggressive-looking dog.

There are more extreme security measures in place at Vipingo Ridge, a 2,500-acre former sisal estate 20 minutes drive north of Mombasa, where 300 women are planting grass by hand to create two of the region’s few 18-hole golf courses. A 10ft-high fence runs the length of the boundary, and the sales brochure for the new development promises further perimeter security, including guards on horseback.

Yet such stringent security measures are par for the course in Kenya, where they are installed as much to appease the anxieties of potential buyers – in this case, of the 147 properties with prices starting at £250,000 for a two-bedroom flat, £300,000 for a three-bedder and £400,000 for a four-bedroom villa – as to deter any burglars.

“Communities need to get along. They need each other,” says Alastair Cavenagh, a co-director of Vipingo Ridge. “If people are not happy outside the gates, they’re not going to be happy inside.”

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/mwafrika/scramble004.jpg

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/overseas/article5155208.ece

dean251182jones

November 22nd, 2008, 06:15 AM

Gee mate fantastic news from one of Africa's most promising shores. Good on ya mate.

ernestombayo7

November 22nd, 2008, 02:37 PM

Geez, a house at the Coast for 1 million pounds!just because of the beach front.Thats crazy.but,its good for the local economy that Britons have soo much money to spend.Though it seems property and land at the coast will be unaffordable for locals.Due to the heavy demand by foreigners which is pushing up property and land rates.

Kwame

December 17th, 2008, 10:35 AM

Govt Develops Services Industries As Part of Efforts to Transform Economy
16 December 2008

Nairobi - In recent years many developing countries have moved into service industries to counteract eroding trade preferences and minimise the risks associated with exporting just goods. Among these services are professional services which cover a wide range of business activities, including Legal, Education, Health, and IT services.

With this in mind, the Commonwealth Secretariat has been offering technical assistance to its member countries, helping them make the transition easier to such service industries as well as looking at ways of strengthening their competitiveness.

One such country is Kenya, whose Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Board contacted the Secretariat in July 2008 requesting assistance to develop a strategy for the country's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. BPO involves contracting the operations and responsibilities of a specific business function to a third-party service provider.

Business Process Outsourcing

BPO includes software, process management, and the people needed to operate the service, which means a certain amount of risk is transferred to the company that is running the process elements on behalf of the outsourcer. Kenya believes that it is well worth the risk.

This request followed an assessment of Kenya's professional services sector, which identified BPO as one of the services with potential for growth. Transforming the Kenyan economy through the promotion of ICT is one of the country's key long term objectives.

The Secretariat's project manager Estella Aryada said: "There is a growing trend for companies and organisations to outsource processes in order to focus on their core business, gain efficiency, widen the skill and talent pool or as part of a wider business strategy."

Starting in January 2009, the Secretariat will assess the existing capacity of the BPO sector in Kenya; provide research on the services that are currently and projected to be on demand in the world; determine the expertise that will be required and areas of training available or need to be available in Kenya to fulfil those demands, and then develop a framework for building the ability of lead organisations in the sector to institutionalise key tasks.

"Kenya has a few young professionals who are successfully exporting their services to clients abroad. This is an encouraging trend. Through this project, we hope that training institutions will be made aware of the skills and competences that professionals must have in order to compete in this market," explained Ms Aryada.
Relevant Links

* East Africa
* Economy, Business and Finance
* ICT and Telecom
* Industry and Infrastructure
* Kenya
* Urban Issues and Habitation

During 2008, the Secretariat also completed a study on the feasibility of exporting health educational services from St. Lucia. Furthermore, at the request of the Ghana Export Promotion Council, a project to develop a strategy for the export of professional services was also completed. In the same year, the Secretariat also assisted Mauritius to design a roadmap to enhance the competitiveness of four sectors: health, ICT/BPO, Health Care and Human resource development.

AllAfrica (http://allafrica.com/stories/200812160556.html)

Jim856796

December 17th, 2008, 11:56 AM

While I was at the Gamesbids.com forums, I found something about a huge plan to transform Nairobi by 2030. Here it is:

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/502806/-/u0ltt0/-/

Kisumu Ndogo

March 1st, 2009, 07:09 PM

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are expected to put the final touches to a new blueprint for a new Nairobi Metropolis, aimed at making the city an African diplomatic hub and a trade centre.

Kenyan engineers and economic researchers are working out an elaborate blueprint, seeking to utilise Nairobi’s proximity to the intra-African highway, the northern corridor, to grab the attention of the world and make Nairobi rich.

Nairobi Metropolitan Minister Mutula Kilonzo said Tuesday the transformation into a metropolis, bringing together more than 15 towns and municipalities within a 40km radius, will begin soon after the enactment of a new law authorising the transformation.

"We are working with all local authorities, the ministry of local government and the stakeholders but the law is inadequate," the minister said here.

Kenya’s economic and social think-tank, the National Social and Economic Council (NESC), which comprises distinguished international experts from Britain and the Far East, has recommended the creation of the new metropolis to re-position Kenya.

Nairobi is banking on its central location within the global air transport network and the northern corridor, which officials hope would put the city on a fast-track to becoming the fastest growing air transportation hub and a logistics centre for the region.

"There is thus a huge opportunity here to transform Nairobi into the region’s and the continent’s diplomatic hub," according to the blueprint, dubbed Nairobi 2030.
Kenyans are also angling for a share of Africa’s growing enterprise in research and education.

The thinking is to make Nairobi the centre of attraction for researchers taking cross-border studies.

In the pipeline is a plan to create areas within the Metropolis designated as education, industrial and diplomatic centres.

For the first time, the government is planning to leave Nairobi’s business centre to be used as the financial hub for the region.

Education and research, officials say, is more lucrative, given the current drive towards a knowledge based economy.

Kenyan urban planners believe the designation of some of the areas in the Metropolis as educational hubs would enable Kenya to earn a share.

The Kenyan government has partly introduced the concept of a 24-hour economy and it is seeking to grab a chunk of of the US$2.2 trillion generated globally in education and research.

Kilonzo, who hopes to see that the laws authorising the formation of the metropolis would be ready by October when the Kenyan parliament resumes sittings, said the 15 municipalities would be migrated into the new metropolis.

"This is not easy, it is a balancing act," said Kilonzo, who leads the third force in the unity government, formed after the post-election violence in the East African state.

Nairobi’s population is presently estimated at 3.05 million people.
The officials at the Nairobi Metropolitan ministry also said the city was currently facing a poor service delivery record, usually highlighted by congestion during peak working hours.

The congestion, due to heavy traffic, leads to poor health and causes huge losses to businesses.
http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/BDX/BDX226/freeway-overpass_~bxp39714.jpghttp://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/THK/THK015/under-serpentine-highway_~c0038186.jpg
Infor Courtesy; (http://en.afrik.com/article14362.html) Panapress .

Kisumu Ndogo

June 1st, 2009, 04:24 PM

Kenya has the potential (yes, that word again...) to become the African Superstar of the service industry.

After reading Kenyan Entrepreneur's blog entry on "niches" & "creativity" I think Kenya needs to find a niche... that niche is providing services to primarily Africa(ns) and beyond.

University Education & Research
We don't need to send KShs "Billions" to Australia, USA, Malaysia or the UK for tertiary education when we can/should set up WORLD-CLASS universities in collaboration with top-notch universities, departments or research centers around the world. Singapore & Dubai have done it. So can we.
The cost of living in Nairobi is much lower than S.Africa, Dubai or the UK. In addition, it is cheaper for African students to fly to/fro from Nairobi than many of the other cities.

We can attract students from Africa while providing Kenyans with jobs (lecturers, clerks, janitors, etc). These students become ambassadors for Kenyan universities. This has bee proven time & again by American universities' African alumni.

We can attract African talent to these universities & think tanks to provide African solutions to Africa's problems. They understand Kenya's problems as we understand theirs. This allows for collaboration of peers.

Networking opportunities arise from the interaction of African professionals that allow the expansion of inter-African commerce. It is a fact that "connections" spurs investments. The connotation is not about "corruption" but "connections" between classmates.

Medical Tourism
Kenyans spend KShs "Billions" on treatments abroad. Our so-called "leaders" lead the way to more waste of funds... kibz went to UK, dan moi recently went to Germany. All the "heart" operations that are done abroad since we lack the facilities. The less well-heeled go to S.Africa & India.
Medical facilities will encourage research that can boost Kenya's stature beyond the HIV & Malaria programs.

Kenya has 2 medical schools & can expand its facilities to ensure we produce more doctors. We can then keep them in Kenya instead of "exporting" them to UK, USA or Australia!

Kenya "exports" nurses to UK. We can keep them in Kenya by offering them better opportunities within Kenya!

India has taken up the concept of "Medical Tourism" with gusto & it is a major growth industry for them. The benefits of Medical Tourism then flow to the rest of the population as the latest technology is used & personnel trained.

Nairobi has become the premier airline hub for the East, Central & West Africa region - multiple carriers e.g. KQ - with the necessary connections to Nairobi. Kenya can effectively compete against S.Africa to become the preferred choice for medical treatment.
The medical per capita "spend" is much higher than regular tourism! Of course, the patients' guests/visitors might tour other "touristy" locations e.g. Game Parks.

The knock-on benefits for Kenya's construction sector, industrial (e.g. BOC Gases), education sector (nurses, doctors, technicians), agriculture (food, flowers) & tourism (relatives, friends visiting parks) are tremendous.
Business Process Outsourcing

We can capture some of the growing BPO market from India or complement India.
There is need for BPO services for many African countries as these countries' economies expand.

The fiber-optic broadband systems (planned) could substantially reduce the cost of telecommunications between African countries.
Kenya needs to expand language classes in German, Italian & French since these countries may not be effectively served by India.

Problems & Challenges for the Service Economy

Insecurity

Kenya needs to work on the high levels of insecurity prevalent today.

Being "poor" is no excuse for being a thief. And being a violent thief is worse!
I support brutal suppression of the "violent" elements. Yes, it will not be popular with the "human rights" folks but I would rather a thief is killed than my near & dear hurt. That's my opinion... What about my Rights to enjoy my hard-earned cash & life?

My "little finger" is more important to me than the life of a violent thief! I would rather the police kill the thug/crook/thief before a single hair on my head is harmed.
We need a 24-hour "economy" especially if we want to serve the BPO market in the USA.

JKIA's utilization can increase substantially if insecurity is not an issue since the travelers may start their journeys much earlier & fly in much later.
The transport industry - using lorries - can be boosted if these carriers move goods at night without fear. This means that the roads are "clear" for passenger & tourist traffic during the day!

Telecommunications

Despite advances in telecommunications, the cost of phone calls remain much higher than necessary. We need more competitors as well as increased "openness" for them then operate effectively.
Data costs too much to access. Hopefully, the government will get its act together or allow private firms to lay fiber-optic cables all over the country (without onerous conditions/permits/fees) as well as international connections.
Progress has been made with EaSSy & TEAMS but the there have been too many delays.
Political Stability - Ethnic Conflicts - Property Rights

Political & ethnic conflicts (esp violent clashes) e.g. Mt. Elgon clashes in 2007 need to be stopped asap. Even if it requires a military response. Nevertheless, the cause roots need to be examined.
Property rights should be supreme. Kenya should not succumb to a "tribal" or "nationalistic" tendency that tramples on Human Rights that will dissuade further investments & aggravate poverty e.g. mugabe's antics in Zimbabwe.

Politics seem to be a 24/7 obssession with Kenyans. No wonder we remain poor since "talking politics' takes precedence over "work productivity".
Kenyans spend less time working, even at their jobs, than discussing politics!
There is hope but we need to find our niche, soon, before someone else steals a march on us! If we do not do it... someone will... S.Africa is looking into becoming a BPO powerhouse as are many N.African countries.

Infor: coldtusker.com

Jim856796

June 23rd, 2009, 05:14 PM

Kisumu Ndogo

June 23rd, 2009, 10:00 PM

According to the report on page 125, Nairobi is to be transformed into a leading African metropolis along the lines of Cairo and Johannesburg. And Nairobi doesn't even have interchanges as big as those depicted in the two photos.

Jim856796 Those Images are China's. China, Japan and the US currently have the best Highway Interchanges in the world. We are hoping our policy makers are reading these stuffs, I am thinking Uhuru Highway and Thika road planned infrastructure overhaul should be modelled closer to these examples. Ethiopia's Gotera Interchange is a good example.

Kisumu Ndogo

July 16th, 2009, 02:18 AM

Source: The Business Daily
Display Date: Mar 13, 2008
Details:

By Correspondent

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cys2T5FgJdo/SbSuVSmxSTI/AAAAAAAAGK0/Ki3SLWfG1rg/s320/cyber_security.jpg

The Government has finished the Kenya Vision 2030 that aims at transforming Kenya into a prosperous globally competitive middle income country by 2030. The Vision is based on three pillars that include economic, social and political and it will be realized over a succession of different time horizons, each with defined goals.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has been identified to contribute significantly to the economic pillar where the target is to attain 10 per cent GDP Growth rate by 2012 and which should be sustained there after. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) was identified as the flagship project for sector. BPO involves the transfer of none core business processes along with the associated operational activities and responsibilities to a third party with at least a guaranteed equal service level. The client reserve the final say over the activities of the vendor in regard to the process of mutual long term success. Successful implementation of the BPO project is expected to generate employment to more than 7,500 direct jobs by 2012. The project is also expected to increase its GDP contribution by Sh10 billion and hence contribute to poverty reduction. This project is expected to be implemented within the medium term plan (2008-2012) of the Kenya Vision 2030. For BPO to yield the expected outcomes other key projects must be put in place.

This includes investment in submarine Fibre Optic Cable and the National Terrestrial Fibre Optic Network to provide broadband connectivity services countrywide. The Government is committed to facilitate faster national and international connectivity to spur economic development and help in narrowing the rural-urban divide. This will help the country to achieve the goals of Kenya Vision 2030.

The TEAMs project will ensure that the country has the required infrastructure that will enable attainment of ICT competences to compete in an equal footing with the rest of the developing economies.

The Government is committed to the attainment of universal access to enable Kenyans to communicate efficiently and affordably in the shortest time possible.

Implementation of this project is not profit motivated but it is driven by the public interest. It is the duty of the Government to enable its citizenry to access and appropriate information, communication and technology as a tool for development.

This project will enable the Government to implement the e-government strategy and enhance service delivery to the public which will ultimately reduce the rural-urban migration through of new opportunities for businesses in the rural areas. For instance the terrestrial cable network will facilitate the establishment of Digital Villages at constituency levels.

The next step will be to develop a state-of-art BPO Park at a suitable location such as Athi River Export Processing Zone where it will be served by adequate telecommunications infrastructures, easy access to international transport facilities, affordable and readily available energy. Currently, the country relies on satellite communication to link the rest of the world which is costly. Lack of high-capacity bandwidth connectivity has restricted Kenya from exploiting its full potential. So the government has collaborated with the United Arab Emirates to install The East African Marine Systems (TEAMs), a submarine cable from Mombasa to Fujairah in the UAE to give Kenya affordable high-capacity bandwidth. The Government is pursuing the project in partnership with the private sector and it is projected that construction will start by February 2008 and will be completed by the end of 2009.

After completion of this project Kenyans are expected to pay less $500 from the current price of between $6,000 to $7,000 per MB of bandwidth. This will be a great savings to Kenya and East African countries that will be connected to the undersea cable. The Government will also facilitate the construction of a Data Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre to complete the National ICT infrastructure. A secure interoperable government-wide ICT architecture requires a data center and recover site.

There will be a primary data centre –Government Data Centre (GDC) – and an appropriate recovery site, the Neutral Data Centre (NDC). GDC will provide storage for all government data bases with NDC will provide world-class services to government ministries, departments and agencies, private sector operators and businesses. The operations of the NDC will be managed and controlled from a Network Operations Centre (NOC), also to be established. The establishment of this data center will include site identification, construction of ideal premises, procurement of equipment and requisite services. The projects are expected to be undertaken through a Public-Private Partnerships.

Janam2000

July 28th, 2009, 04:05 PM

The first of four undersea cables bringing high-speed internet to eastern Africa has gone live. The BBC's Anne Waithera, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, finds a nation impatient to join the broadband revolution.

In a busy cyber cafe in Nairobi dozens of people, mostly young, are hunched over computers surfing the net. I try to strike up a conversation with one of them but he will not even look my way. Without looking up from the monitor he signals with his hand that I should wait until he is done.

Africa's broadband future
This is perfectly understandable. It costs slightly less than $1 to surf for about an hour in a cyber-cafe in Nairobi and internet connection speeds are very slow. But he is ready to talk after he pays his bill. "It's not good. It's hanging and keeps wasting time and frustrating me," he says.

Another frustrated user complains: "I've spent more than 15 minutes instead of 10." But things are about to change for these internet users. The Seacom undersea fibre-optic cable goes live on Thursday, promising changes that will be felt right across eastern and southern Africa.

The switch will take place simultaneously in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Maputo in Mozambique and Mtunzini in South Africa. The switchover from relying mainly on satellites to the submarine cable is expected to massively increase connection speeds.

The cables are being laid on the floor of the Indian ocean
One of the biggest setbacks of satellite connections is that a change in weather almost always leads to unstable connectivity. It is hoped that cyber-cafe owners will transfer the benefits to their customers, as they will be making a huge savings on international links. "When the fibre-optic cable goes live this means the speeds will be fantastic, we'll have a higher turnover of clients and that translates to increased income," says Fred, a cyber-cafe manager.

These benefits will also be felt by millions of phone users, who will enjoy cheaper international connections and quicker voice transfers. "The fibre-optic connection enables faster voice transfer unlike satellite, which has an average response time of 650 milliseconds, thus introducing some delays in our voice communication," says Mahmoud Noor, Seacom's cable-station manager in Mombasa.

Mr Noor says the new service will reduce this to an average of 90 milliseconds for calls between Europe and eastern Africa, and an even faster response of less than six milliseconds between Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Potential squandered?
In Kenya, various sectors of the economy are expecting a major boost following the launch of the undersea cable, and investors are anxious about it. The first undersea cable was launched last month, but is not yet live
"At the Nairobi stock exchange there is a possibility that things like day-trading will be introduced, where you make an order and in two minutes you will know if it has been sold or not," says Idd Salim of the Symbiotic Media Consortium, a software firm in Nairobi.

"That is not possible right now because you have to make an order today then wait for two or three days for it to clear." Mr Salim says that Africa's potential is being hindered by the absence of fast internet connectivity and this technological advance will open new avenues.

"For instance computer programmers cannot start a video service or a powerful website because the connection is slow," he says. "You'll see a lot of YouTube and Facebook stuff now made for Africa by Africans. "Look at things like medicine - people will be able to be diagnosed from their homes because now we can have virtual hospitals."

The use of the undersea cable is expected to be immediate, save for some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who may want to test it within their networks for a few days first. Last month the Teams fibre-optic cable was launched in the coastal city of Mombasa, but it has yet to go live.

Information from bbc.com

Pule

July 29th, 2009, 11:21 AM

^^ I'm excited over that project.

Social Entrepreneur

August 31st, 2009, 03:04 PM

The picture of Nairobi, the one which looks like it has been taken from Uhuru park just shows us how beautiful our country is. Let us try our level best to promote our motherland which has great potential. We have been waiting for the fiber optic cable and it is now here with us. This is just the beginning of a journey towards achieving the vision 2030 goal. I hope that things will take a drastic turn and open up our businesses to the rest of the world and in that way jobs will be created and in turn eradicate poverty.

Volunteer Kenya (http://www.estherpassaris.com/grants)

Kisumu Ndogo

September 6th, 2009, 04:51 PM

Kisumu Ndogo

September 6th, 2009, 04:54 PM

Printed: 2008
Initial Remarks on Kenya Vision 2030
Lately, I have been enjoying Nairobi traffic jam because it gives me enough time to go through vision 2030. Though I may sound negative sometimes, I am confident that we are much better off with this vision than without it - and these negatives help me understand how I can best contribute to make it more successful.

Copyright
The document is copyright protected. In the first page, you are prohibited from reproducing it without written consent from the publisher. Government people clearly do not believe in GPL, LGPL or creative commons licences - they should learn from the BBC. In the meantime, I suspect they didnt really mean to hinder you - print it anyway.

Audacious
It is an ambitious document. It proposes a sustained growth rate of over 10% for the next 22 years. It almost sounds like Utopia. I like that. A good vision must exercise our imagination and require more than normal effort to attain - otherwise it wouldnt be worth calling it a vision for Kenya. We will not get anywhere doing things as we have always done them.

Too much government
In vision 2030, the government seems to be rolling its sleeves and taking charge of Kenya. At the end of it all, we'll have this great country that the government made. Yipee! Vision 2030 doesnt require much from me - and I have much beef and deef with that. It seems more like a budget planning document than a rallying call to all Kenyans to rise up for their nation and take her higher than Batian. It is better to make Kenya a nation of great people and letting them take charge of their nation than a nation of poor people with a great, brilliant government. The vision should have set out new National values and priorities if we all adopt collectively, will take our country there.

Devolved Funds and Flagship Projects
I commend vision 2030 in the realization that inequalities and decentralization should be addressed through the instrument of devolved funds. Much good will follow that, provided the funds are actually accessible (hard lessons need to be learnt of the youth fund). I also like the idea of flagship projects - although the government needs to have transparent means for the private sector to particiapte in them (no secret sell offs)

Future
I am very disturbed that the vision doesnt seem to anticipate the future. It largely focuses on solving the problems we face now, rather than preparing us for the future. We dont want to climb the ladder only to realize when we have reached the top that we started on the right base but leaning on the wrong wall. What shall be the basis for the stable, prosperous and sustainable nation in 2030?

Savings
I am concerned that the proposed way to increase savings is overseas development assistance, remmittances and pension funds. I would expect a clarion call from our leadership - similar to the soil erosion campaigns of the mid eighties - encouraging ordinary Kenyans of all walks to save. After all, why are IPOS persistently oversubcribed in Kenya? There must be more imaginative ways to mobilize savings among Kenyans of all spheres.

Commitment
In the end, it depends on how committed everyone is to the vision. The stuff on social pillar, political reforms and the constitution sounds very good. I am optimistic that they shall be implemented to some degree. But I am yet to see zeal in government for this vision outside the ministry incharge of it. The government should not sell the vision (and buy the commitment) to the citizens and then submit itself to being held accountable by the people for its success.

Pecking Order
I have the impression from the vision that in Kenya, there is the government on top, then the formal sector and then the informal sector as the base. Sadly, the vision seems incrmental rather than disruptive in puting Kenya on the path to 2030 and seems snobbish towards the folks at the base.

http://blog.openvestor.com/2008/07/initial-remarks-on-kenya-vision-2030.html

desert burner

September 15th, 2009, 03:59 PM

Broadband really the new growth frontier: Report

http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/657748/highRes/101228/-/maxw/600/-/xoj6wez/-/Access.jpg Access Kenya director Jonathan Somen demonstrates a broadband terminal. An equity analysis report on the firm shows that new connections on the corporate front will grow. Photo/File
By WACHIRA KANG'ARUPosted Monday, September 14 2009 at 15:20

The next growth area in Kenya’s telecommunication industry will be in the use of high capacity Internet, as benefits of the undersea cables start to filter in.

The use of broadband —the high-speed internet connection — is projected to grow four-fold over the next three years, increasing the number of users from about 11,000 broadband connections in 2008 to 46,000 connections in 2012 on the corporate front.

This will be possible with the deployment of the sub-sea internet cables, which will see the country improve the speed at which it communicates with the rest of world from 1.42 Gbps (gigabytes per second) to a possible capacity of 1,410 Gbps with the potential to be upgraded to 3,440 Gbps for the eastern and southern Africa.

“We estimate that the industry’s broadband subscriber base could generate a compound annual growth rate of 42 per cent from 11,455 broadband connections in 2008 to 46,908 connections in 2012,” CFC Stanbic Financial Services in an equity analysis report on AccessKenya, released last week.

The growth rate closely mirrors the mobile phone subscribers’ growth rate pushing the subscriber base from about 1.9 million subscribers in December 2003, when the industry started experiencing accelerated growth, to the current 18 million users.

Deployment of three undersea fibre optic cables — Seacom, The East African Marine System (TEAMS), and the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is at different stages of completion.

The private sector-led Seacom connection is already operational with the Kenya government-backed initiative, TEAMS, set to be launched this week, while EASSy, also state-sponsored, is working to beat the June next year deadline.

“We expect that the pace of expansion in the broadband subscriber base over the next five years will be largely determined by the rate at which international Internet gateway charges drop when the three submarine fibre optic cables become operational,” CFC Stanbic Financial Services notes.

The report estimates that there are about 3.4 million Internet users — the majority using telephone connection — in Kenya reflecting an Internet penetration rate of 8.9 per cent.

The world average is about 23.8 per cent. However, the country has only an estimated 15,000 broadband high speed, large data transfer connections in the country.

“We expect that this could have a significant downward push on broadband costs from 2011,” CFC Stanbic Financial Services says of the effect the cable will have on the access fees, which they say could spur demand for broadband connections.

The demand is projected to accelerate growth in the industry attracting new entrants in the market “thus making the competitive environment challenging for incumbent service providers”.

In 2008, the Internet market was dominated by Access Kenya, Interconnect, Kenyaweb, Nairobinet, Swift Global Kenya, and Wananchi Online, with some 73 licensed Internet Service Providers, although less than half of these are operational.

The market is currently concentrated with the top ten ISPs controlling about 60 per cent of the market.

The entry of mobile phone service providers to the data market is expected to change the outlook with an expected price decline.

The anticipated price drop could mirror the 2005 liberalisation of the telecommunications industry that resulted in increase in the number of national and international Internet gateway providers with a resultant 37 per cent drop in the average leased line monthly tariff from an estimated $5,300/Mbps in 2005 to $3,350/Mbps in 2008.

But as more players seek to enter the broadband market, another similarity with the cellular phone market is expected to occur, an escalation of investment spending on network infrastructure.

This is as players expand their coverage delivery capacity to satisfy new demand.

“Broadband players providing backhaul and ‘last-mile’ connection to end-users could be faced with the need to upgrade their existing network infrastructure to meet broadband demand,” CFC Stanbic Financial Services states.

The firm is a subsidiary of CFC Stanbic Holdings.

http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/smartcompany/-/1226/657746/-/item/1/-/3lf02kz/-/index.html

desert burner

September 20th, 2009, 09:00 PM

http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/661084/highRes/102578/-/maxw/600/-/3v9h4b/-/Equity-Bank.jpg An Equity Bank branch in Nairobi. Photo/FILE
By NATION TeamPosted Sunday, September 20 2009 at 19:10

Living standards of communities in Western Province could be up for a lift following plans by Equity Bank to stimulate rural entrepreneurship among them, in order to address rampant poverty.

The bank intends to achieve this through mobilising 50 groups each from the province’s 24 constituencies to benefit from training on entrepreneurial skills and financial management.

Economic growth

The groups will also be considered for loans by the bank, as part of its strategy to exploit the untapped potential for economic growth in the region.

The bank’s chief executive, Dr James Mwangi, said the region’s population of four million people had the potential to provide enormous investment opportunities with a huge potential for dairy farming and horticultural production that was largely untapped.

The target is to start by improving average incomes in the province by 50 per cent and tapping into the abundant resources. “Our agenda is try to unlock the vicious cycle of poverty in the province by making it easy for communities to access loans and promote the spirit of entrepreneurship at all levels,” he said.

Mr Mwangi was addressing business people at a luncheon organised by the bank at a Kakamega hotel. Another initiative of the bank is to supply 25,000 grafted seedlings of avocado plant to farmers in the region, so that they can generate income from extraction of oil to manufacture soaps and perfumes.

The bank has also picked a team to look into the needs of clients in the region and help them embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship to improve livelihoods.

During the official opening of the bank’s six new branches in the province, deputy prime minister, Musalia Mudavadi, who was the chief guest said the region’s economic fortunes could be turned around in the next five years, if leaders were ready to work together.

And speaking shortly after opening the Equity Bank Mumias branch at Bomani grounds in Mumias town on Sunday, he challenged sugarcane growers to protect a sugar miller in the area despite the hardships they were going through.

Independent

Speaking of loans which many of the rural communities are afraid to borrow, the minister told them to take advantage of the financial institutions offering the products to acquire funds that will help them become independent in areas of sugarcane transportation and farm in puts.
A loan can help you buy fertilizer and other farm in puts without going through a middleman and even acquire farm machines that will cut down on the expenses incurred when you rely on another person to do it for you, because high interest will be charged on the services rendered.”

acreed79

September 21st, 2009, 05:43 PM

desert burner

September 22nd, 2009, 08:03 AM

http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/smartcompany/-/1226/661316/-/s75vnpz/-/index.html

desert burner

September 22nd, 2009, 08:05 AM

http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/smartcompany/-/1226/661352/-/s75vkaz/-/index.html

Kenguy

September 22nd, 2009, 08:41 AM

Equity bank and safaricom (mpesa) have done more for Kenya than any government has ever done. We now have a situation where the formerly elite banks like Barclays and stanchart fighting for the little guy, thanks to mpesa and equity.

If you want to suceed in Kenya, have the little guy in mind. only wish our construction sector can wake up to that fact.

mikeotechi

September 22nd, 2009, 10:22 AM

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539552/661596/-/58nl9f/-/index.html

desert burner

September 23rd, 2009, 06:06 AM

A US chemical giant is expanding into the East African market, following the establishment of a fully-fledged office in Nairobi after ten years of operating through proxy.
DuPont plans to use its consultative arm—DuPont Safety Resources—to raise its market share in the region to contribute to the company’s earnings in the coming years. "We have decided to expand into the region to boost our presence in the emerging markets, and grow our consultative brand in the same line as most of the multinational clients," said Mr Derrick Sibanda, the regional business development manager.
Environmental solutions
DuPont’s will focus on offering consultation services on organisation risk and safety management, which it considers the most urgent need, after carrying out a market assessment. The firm will target manufacturing, petrochemicals, mining and agriculture sectors.
Though initially set up as a chemicals manufacturer 200 years ago, DuPont has evolved over the years, resulting in the creation of the consultative arm which advices companies on best practices on safety, capital effectiveness, asset productivity efficiency and environmental solutions.
Sibanda said many of the region’s businesses do not always comply with certified safety procedures, thus affecting their output which in the long run creates huge losses.
"After carrying out an assessment on the East African market, we identified that the biggest challenge is on safety standards in working environments," said Mr Sibanda.
The company met with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers to explore ways in which to enter the regional market.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/InsidePage.php?id=1144024604&cid=14&

desert burner

September 24th, 2009, 05:32 AM

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539552/662574/-/58oair/-/index.html

desert burner

September 25th, 2009, 03:45 AM

Stockbrokers have launched a Kiswahili investor education handbook that will augment ongoing investor education programmes to restore confidence in the capital markets.
The handbook, launched by Kenyahttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/mag-glass_10x10.gif (http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/InsidePage.php?id=1144024843&cid=14&#) Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks (Kasib), will be distributed through the network the association’s members and their agents. An online version can be downloaded from the Kasib Website.
"We have been under immense pressure from the investing public, especially retail investors in rural areas to provide investor education information in Kiswahili," said Ms Jane Njeru, Kasib chief executive.
Demystify NSE
She said the decision to translate market terminologies and investment guide in Kiswahili was informed by the need demystify the Nairobi Stock Exchangehttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/mag-glass_10x10.gif (http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/InsidePage.php?id=1144024843&cid=14&#) to potential investors who have basic understanding of English.
"Some market terminologies may be complicated to understand for non-english speaking investors," she said.
Kasib and other capital markets — Capital Markets Authority and Nairobi Stock Exchange — last month rolled an investor education programme to enlighten mostly retail investors who cannot afford financial advisory services.
The campaign is meant to restore confidence in the market where fraud and malpractice targeting unsophisticated investors is high.
"The importance of educating the investors can not be gainsaid if we are going to rejuvenate activity at the bourse," said Njeru.
Njeru said the handbook is to specific to the Kenyan stock market but also relevant to regional bourses — and especially in Tanzania, where Kiswahili is widely spoken.
"We are finalising plans to roll out training seminars across the country in English and Kiswahili."
The NSE has witnessed low trading in the recent past due to depressed investor confidence.
In a meeting held last week between Kasib, NSE, Capital Markets Authority and the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation agreed to work together to consolidate their investor education initiatives.

desert burner

September 25th, 2009, 04:02 AM

Computers lined up for schools in State online courses plan

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/image/view/-/663116/highRes/103569/-/maxw/600/-/13oxlfvz/-/laptops.jpg Students work on their laptops in a US class. Kenya is preparing for digital learning. /Reuters
By Mwaura Kimani and Victor Juma (email the author (javascript:void(0);))

Posted Friday, September 25 2009 at 00:00

Kenya’s education system is gearing up for a key shift as the government and private firms rev up efforts to roll out formal digital learning platform.

This will see students in public schools use computers for learning from January, if the government project is successful.

In a plan to put textbooks in digital format that promises to radically change the way learning takes place in Kenyan schools, the Kenya Institute of Education has prepared new texts in readiness for the roll out.

Initially, eleven Form One subjects and science and mathematics lessons for classes four and five will be taught in the digital format.

Targeted subjects
The Form One subjects to be taught in the new format include mathematics, Kiswahili, chemistry, history & government, business studies and computer science. Others are English, biology, physics, agriculture and home science.

And yesterday, the Ministry of Education signed a Sh700 million deal with three technology giants—Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco—and USAID for a project that is to further boost e-learning in schools.

The project, dubbed “Accelerating 21st Century Education” (ACE), will be implemented in 60 schools (40 primary and 20 secondary). Each of the schools will be provided with 100 networked computers for students’ use, 120 laptops for teachers, and a server supporting wireless access infrastructure.

Students will in the long-term do their homework and access presentations and research materials through computers provided by schools. Under the project, teachers would be expected to prepare lessons that incorporate PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials mostly sourcing material from Internet sites.

Should the digital learning plan work, Kenyan students will join the ranks of those in developed countries like the US where in states such as California and Texas pupils use computers provided by the school for learning, doing homework and hear podcasts of their teachers’ science lectures.

Ministry officials said training would be offered before the materials are sent to over 6,000 secondary and 21,000 primary schools.

“For children to thrive in this globally competitive age, they need certain skills set and the best way to deploy these is through one-to-one e-learning which is the emerging trend globally,” said Robert Fogel, a senior official of Intel Corporation said.

But educationists reckon the future of e-learning is bleak as there is still a large digital divide in country as only a handful of pupils have access to a computer.

But the Ministry of Education says its banking on the Sh1.3 billion mobile computer laboratories to push the project in the rural areas amid concerns that most schools do not have computers or electricity. Each constituency is to get a bus worth Sh6.2 million to be used by all schools.

Broadband connection
Treasury is set to procure the buses and computers, the Ministry of Information and Communication will provide broadband or satellite connection, while the Ministry of Education is tasked with providing the instructors.

“All teachers would be offered interest-free loans to buy laptops,” said Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri last month.

The journey towards e-learning is also set to get a boost through the global One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative which is already been piloted at several schools such as Our Lady of Mercy Primary School in Nairobi.

In recent efforts to scale up the scope of the OLPC initiative, the foundation has moved to rope in university students worldwide, who are part of a summer grant programme in which the learners will form up to 100 teams that will distribute thousands of XO laptops to children in Africa.

Educationists reckon digitisation of learning materials would reduce the level of interaction between teachers and pupils and make learning more interesting.
“We envisage that this project will complement the idea of centres of excellence, which is a medium term plan of the Vision 2030,” said Kimani Nkanata, director of policy and planning, at the Ministry of Education.

“The programme design will see each student having access to a computer during lessons and at their own time for downloading content.”
from the school server.

To kick-start ACE, 2, 000 teachers will be trained at the schools, while 5, 000 pre-service teachers will receive training in teachers training colleges.

“ACE ties in well with our mission to increase access to education, improve the quality of education and raise school enrolment rates for children from marginalised areas of East Africa,” said USAID Kenya mission director Erna Kerst.

Through ACE, students will access the digitised curricula content and other supplementary content and Internet facilities enabled by the technology firms.

ACE will focus on mathematics and science instruction. Low penetration of ICT teaching and facilities in the country’s public education system has been blamed for denying students the analytical and creative skills that interaction with computer resources can bestow.

The problem has not spared even the country’s public tertiary institutions, with public universities continuing to rank low compared to other African and international universities in global rankings.

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/-/539550/663070/-/item/1/-/dxgfh4z/-/index.html

desert burner

September 27th, 2009, 03:03 AM

The Kenyan Government may have finally realised that to achieve sustained and balanced growth, the place to begin is in the villages.

Massive migration from rural areas has put enormous stress on poorly planned urban settlements, resulting in the mushrooming of informal settlements and the growth of unemployment in towns and cities.

This is perhaps why the focus is shifting to rural areas through a number of projects including digital villages, the kazi kwa vijana initiative, mobile computer programmes and revival of irrigation schemes with the aim of increasing earnings and spending throughout the country.

The six-month stimulus package, which was launched in July and will run through December 31, is intended to put the economy on a faster growth trajectory. A number of initiatives, some already underway, are intended to inject money into the economy, stimulate consumption and create jobs for the youth across the country.

According to experts, the new initiative could prop up the fledgling rural economy on which 60 per cent of the country’s population depends and which is suffering from the ravages of prolonged drought. It is estimated that 10 million people are faced with starvation, prompting the government to appeal to donors for relief food.

The pastoralist economy is literally on its death bed. A large number of livestock have already died due to lack of water and pasture. On Friday, Central Bank of Kenya governor Njuguna Ndung’u said the government was counting on the anticipated El Nino rains and increased government spending to stimulate the economy.

The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said the rain and increased spending were the only hope the country had of resuscitating the economy that suffered a severe setback following post-election violence, the global financial crisis and the prevailing drought.

It said the stimulus package would increase spending and provide jobs, while the rains would give agriculture, the backbone of the economy, a new lease of life. The team pointed out that coffee and tea production would increase, resulting in improved earnings.

Likewise, power producers are counting on the rains to replenish the Seven Forks dams that generate about 47 per cent of the country’s electricity to end power rationing and cut the cost of industrial production. But there are fears that bureaucratic red tape associated with the procurement process could delay a number of State-initiated projects, with the possibility of spillover into next year.

There are also concerns that the intensity of the rains could create problems like flooding and associated water-borne diseases, and destruction of dwellings. The government has floated tenders for the construction of jua kali sheds and fresh produce and wholesale markets, which are part of the Sh22 billion economic stimulus programme announced earlier.

Appropriate tools

The estimated cost of the proposed sheds spread throughout the eight provinces is Sh525 million, or Sh2.5 million per constituency, allocated for the purpose in this fiscal year’s Budget.
Another Sh210 million, or Sh1 million per constituency, was allocated for equipping them with appropriate tools to enable the youth tap into the increased number of construction projects in rural areas. Sh1.1 billion was allocated to the construction of fresh produce and wholesale markets countrywide to facilitate trade and rural enterprise development. This translates to Sh8 million for every constituency.

The government has already rolled out the kazi kwa vijana programme and revived the Bura Irrigation Scheme among other projects intended to secure the country against food shortages like those experienced most of this year.
According to an advertisement this week, the firms to be engaged to build the jua kali sheds are those on the roll of the current Building Contractors Register.

They have to prove that they have been able to undertake similar projects within the last five years. The bid bond has to be in form of bank guarantee with interested firms having to show adequate staff and equipment.
Bidders must also have sound financial standing and adequate access to credit line. They also have to reveal their litigation history and produce a tax compliance certificate.

Local small contractors are unlikely to benefit because of the stringent procurement procedures and the lack of technical and financial capacity to undertake such huge projects.

Better Kenya

In this year’s Budget Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Public Procurement Oversight Authority to formulate appropriate regulations to enable small and medium contractors located in rural areas to benefit from contracts offered through Constituency Development Fund, Local Authorities Transfer Fund and other development funds.

In his Budget speech Mr Kenyatta said the measures were meant to stimulate growth, protect jobs, reduce poverty, enhance food security and safeguard the poor.

He said this was to be achieved through creating a conducive environment for business, developing infrastructure, promoting equitable regional development, investing in environment and food security.

Economic growth slowed from 7.1 per cent in 2007 to 1.7 per cent in 2008 following post-election violence, the global economic meltdown and drought currently ravaging most parts of the country.

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/663812/-/item/1/-/b10wjbz/-/index.html

desert burner

October 2nd, 2009, 06:27 PM

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/666234/-/iftdiez/-/index.html

desert burner

October 2nd, 2009, 06:28 PM

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/666256/-/iftdgkz/-/index.html

desert burner

October 2nd, 2009, 06:32 PM

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/666774/-/ift9hkz/-/index.html

Kenguy

October 3rd, 2009, 10:06 AM

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/666256/-/iftdgkz/-/index.html

That kengen IPO was oversubscribed (again). Im smelling a bull market around the corner.

mkenya

October 4th, 2009, 03:42 AM

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/666774/-/ift9hkz/-/index.html

I Lost money in the Safaricom IPO...I have no faith in IPO's or anything to do with investing in safaricom.

Kenguy

October 4th, 2009, 04:51 AM

I Lost money in the Safaricom IPO...I have no faith in IPO's or anything to do with investing in safaricom.

Thats because you invested hoping to make a quick buck in the short run. The telecommunications sector in Kenya has just started walking and Safcom may still be a good bet for long term investors. Though in Kenya's case the best place to invest is what I would call ''booze and banks''. Those companies have high profits and high dividends.

desert burner

October 4th, 2009, 09:35 PM

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/-/2560/667734/-/5gt8mjz/-/index.html

mkenya

October 5th, 2009, 02:01 AM

Thats because you invested hoping to make a quick buck in the short run. The telecommunications sector in Kenya has just started walking and Safcom may still be a good bet for long term investors. Though in Kenya's case the best place to invest is what I would call ''booze and banks''. Those companies have high profits and high dividends.

Lol! "Booze & Banks"

Kisumu Ndogo

October 29th, 2009, 03:37 AM

http://i36.tinypic.com/fxgpwl.jpg

Kisumu Ndogo

October 29th, 2009, 03:45 AM

http://i36.tinypic.com/2wqedzp.jpg

Kisumu Ndogo

October 29th, 2009, 04:21 AM

http://www.tourismroi.com/ContentImages/Hero1_29678.png

TITLE: Lake View Resort City
DATE: Friday, July 31, 2009 10:04:39 AM

1. INTRODUCTION
Kenya Railways is a State Corporation established
under The Kenya Railways Corporation Act (Cap 397)
of the Laws of Kenya.

In line with Kenya’s Vision 2030 which aims at making
Kenya a competitive and prosperous nation the
Corporation’s mandate is;

1. Management of the Concession
2. Management of Non-Conceded Assets
3. Promotion, facilitation and participation in
metropolitan mass transit systems
4. Development of the national railway network
5. Development and management of Inland
waterways
6. Management of Railway Training Institute

As part of the Corporation’s mandate to develop its
assets, Kenya Railways has developed a strategy to
create exciting and innovative property developments.
One of the key developments is Lake View Resort
City on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu City.

2. LOCATION OF LAKE VIEW RESORT CITY
The proposed Lake View Resort City will be located on the Kenya Railways land measuring 20 Acres in Kisumu City on the shores of Lake Victoria.

It will be situated between Jomo Kenyatta Highway, Bank Street, the Railway Station and the State Lodge. The site is sandwiched between Kisumu Port and Nyanza Provincial Headquarters.

The Project Description
The Project will involve the development
of the following facilities;

1. Five Star Hotel-400 rooms
2. Two Three Star Hotels-300 rooms each
3. Conference facilities for over 2000 people
4. Office Park- 10 commercial buildings
5. Car park-2000 cars
6. Entertainment and recreation areas
7. Shopping Mall
8. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Park

3. KISUMU CITY
Kisumu is an attractive city on the shores of Lake Victoria. The City was established as Port Florence, the lake side terminal of Uganda Railways, over a century ago. The city grew into a trade and transport hub. Kisumu prosperity gained momentum after the formation of East African community and its fortunes declined soon after collapse of the community in 1977. The City is poised to regain its former status as a regional hub especially after being named one of seven Africa Millennium Cities under The
Millennium Cities Initiative.

4. THE PROJECT BENEFITS
1. Transformation of Kisumu as a destination of choice for both leisure and conference tourism 2. Provision of commercial and business opportunities for the residents of Kisumu 3. Creation and stimulation of value adding activities in the region
4. Creation of job opportunities in construction, hospitality, travel, marine sectors etc
5. Provision of high quality office space that will attract government, private sector and non-governmental organizations
6. Provision of high quality business and trading premises for local businesses
7. The BPO Park will tranform Kisumu City into an International Business Centre

5 . PROJECT IMPLEMANTATION
a) Lake View Resort City
Finance and development is expected to be by way of Joint Venture (JV) between Kenya Railways and Interested Investors.
b) Metropolitan Railway System
Kenya Railways along with other stakeholders will develop and finance the project by way of Franchise or Build Operate Transfer (BOT) or Joint Venture (JV) or long term franchise.

1. INTRODUCTION
Kenya Railways is a State Corporation established under The Kenya Railways Corporation Act (Cap 397) of the Laws of Kenya.

In line with Kenya’s Vision 2030 which aims at making Kenya a competitive and prosperous nation the Corporation’s mandate is;

1. Management of the Concession
2. Management of Non-Conceded Assets
3. Promotion, facilitation and participation in
metropolitan mass transit systems
4. Development of the national railway network
5. Development and management of Inland
waterways
6. Management of Railway Training Institute

As part of the Corporation’s mandate to develop its assets, Kenya Railways has developed a strategy to create exciting and innovative property developments. One of the key developments is Lake View Resort City on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu City.

2. LOCATION OF LAKE VIEW RESORT CITY
The proposed Lake View Resort City will be located on the Kenya Railways land measuring 20 Acres in Kisumu City on the shores of Lake Victoria.

It will be situated between Jomo Kenyatta Highway, Bank Street, the Railway Station and the State Lodge. The site is sandwiched between Kisumu Port and Nyanza Provincial Headquarters.

The Project Description
The Project will involve the development
of the following facilities;

1. Five Star Hotel-400 rooms
2. Two Three Star Hotels-300 rooms each
3. Conference facilities for over 2000 people
4. Office Park- 10 commercial buildings
5. Car park-2000 cars
6. Entertainment and recreation areas
7. Shopping Mall
8. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Park

3. KISUMU CITY
Kisumu is an attractive city on the shores of Lake Victoria. The City was established as
Port Florence, the lake side terminal of Uganda Railways, over a century ago. The city grew into a trade and transport hub. Kisumu prosperity gained momentum after the formation of East African community and its fortunes declined soon after collapse of the community in 1977. The City is poised to regain its former status as a regional hub especially after being named one of seven Africa Millennium Cities under The Millennium Cities Initiative.

4. THE PROJECT BENEFITS
1. Transformation of Kisumu as a destination of choice for both leisure and conference tourism
2. Provision of commercial and business opportunities for the residents of Kisumu
3. Creation and stimulation of value adding activities in the region
4. Creation of job opportunities in construction, hospitality, travel, marine sectors etc
5. Provision of high quality office space that will attract government, private sector and non-governmental organizations
6. Provision of high quality business and trading premises for local businesses
7. The BPO Park will tranform Kisumu City into an International Business entre

5 . PROJECT IMPLEMANTATION

a) Lake View Resort City
Finance and development is expected to be by way of Joint Venture (JV) between Kenya Railways and Interested Investors.
b) Metropolitan Railway System
Kenya Railways along with other stakeholders will develop and finance the project by way of Franchise or Build Operate Transfer (BOT) or Joint Venture (JV) or long term franchise.

Kisumu Ndogo

October 29th, 2009, 04:31 AM

City
http://i37.tinypic.com/hu1yde.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/2i1f8g1.jpg

Business Park
http://i37.tinypic.com/2qs6vm8.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/mrteyw.jpg

Kenguy

October 30th, 2009, 06:39 PM

http://i36.tinypic.com/fxgpwl.jpg

^^
So thats how the Uhuru highway overpass from Mombasa road to Westlands should look like.

Kisumu Ndogo

November 9th, 2009, 12:05 AM

Kenguy I am not sure whether the U|C Northern & Southern bypass contains any flyovers (May be bridges), I doubt but most likely after these crucial infrastructures are developed is when we can see transient fly overs as above.

Kisumu Ndogo

February 23rd, 2010, 03:38 AM

Kenyan Economic Growth May Climb to 4.5%, AIG Says (Update1)

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Economic growth in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, may accelerate to 4.5 percent in 2010 as the government lifts the pace of stimulus spending and the agricultural industry recovers after a drought, AIG Investments of Kenya said.

Kenya’s economy grew an estimated 1.8 percent last year, almost unchanged from a year earlier, said Peter Wachira, AIG’s senior investment manager in the country. The economy will improve “as the impact of the government stimulus package supports economic activity and employment creation,” he told reporters today in the capital, Nairobi.

Kenya, which announced a stimulus package to boost agriculture in August, has started the bidding process for a number of those projects, which are intended to improve economic growth, he said.

In a further boost for growth, rain began falling in Kenya’s drought-stricken farming areas late last year following a prolonged drought that caused agriculture to contract for the previous two years, he said. A quarter of Kenya’s gross domestic product is derived from agriculture, including rain-fed crops such as tea.

The rainfall may also increase domestic food supplies, said Wachira. Kenyan inflation may fall below 5 percent in the first three months of 2010 as the weighting of food in the price basket is reduced next month, Wachira said.

The basket of goods and services used to measure price growth will change in February, with food carrying a new weighting of 40 percent, down from 50.5 percent now.

Kenya’s inflation rate, which was 5.3 percent in December, plunged last year after the statistics bureau changed the formula for calculating it. The rate was 17.9 percent in September using the old method.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net

Kisumu Ndogo

February 23rd, 2010, 03:41 AM

Japan to Invest US$375 Million in Kenya

http://www.ke.emb-japan.go.jp/image/Economics/left.jpg
Prime Minister Raila Odinga - Securing Financial Assistance for Kenya
Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga’s weeklong tour of the South East Asian region is a blessing to a country struggling to protect its water catchments; improve its poor infrastructure and increase electricity power generation. He concluded his official visit to Japan and Thailand on Saturday and announced to Kenyans on his arrival back to the country that discussions with leaders of the two South East Asian nations had placed Kenya on the threshold of remarkable investment plans worthy billions of shillings. On his arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi early Sunday morning, the Kenyan PM told newsmen that; “Japan has extended a loan of US$375 million (KSh28.8 billion) to Kenya for geothermal power generation, drought responses and reforestation. “Japan has extended a loan of US$375 million (KSh28.8 billion) to Kenya for geothermal power generation, drought responses and reforestation. Of the amount, $320 million (KSh24.6 billion) will be channelled to geothermal power generation while US$55 million (Ksh4.2 billion) will service drought responses and reforestation in the country,” said Raila Odinga who arrived in Japan on Monday evening for meetings with business and political leaders aimed at attracting Japanese aid and investments to Kenya.

He said that as opposed to the past where Kenya criss-crossed the world “to beg” for financial aid, his tour of Japan and Thailand was significant in the sense that it was based on seeking for investments. “We went to seek trade and investment opportunities as opposed to the old habit of begging for Aid. But to cope with the impact of global warming, we encourage promotion of green energy and reforestation projects” he said. The PM, who was accompanied by Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta; Henry Kosgey of Industrialisation, Harun Mwau (Transport) and Nobel Peace Laureate, Prof. Wangari Maathai, said that, his Japanese counterpart, Yukio Hatoyama also offered his government’s assistance for Kenya to develop a nuclear power plant. “As we are all aware, Japan had the most advanced technology in nuclear power production. His Excellency Hatoyama told us that, Kenya can expect additional assistance in other areas of climate change measures,” added the PM.

Japan also expressed strong commitment to support Kenya’s Vision 2030. Under the Vision 2030, the government has outlined 120 flagship projects to be implemented in the first five years. A total of about US$20 billion (Ksh1.6 trillion) will be used to establish and complete the projects. The government is expected to raise US$6.25 million (Ksh500 billion) for the projects, whereas the remaining US$13.75 billion (Ksh1.1 trillion) will be raised through a private-public partnership. Hatoyama said Japan will support Kenya’s desire for expanded trade and investment. He pledged to push for increased exports of Kenyan products to Japan and an increase of Japanese tourists to Kenya, and greater investment of Japanese private companies in Kenya. The PM said the Japanese people wanted to assist the country develop a nuclear energy reactor to bridge the power deficit the country experienced in bid to reduce carbon emission from other sources of energy. He said the Toyota Company expressed interest to invest in the geothermal and solar energy production.

Mr. Odinga reported that top executives of the multinational company sanctioned plans for construction of an oil pipeline and export terminal from the Proposed Lamu Port in the Coast of Kenya to Juba town in Southern Sudan. “The company has confirmed plans to make Kenya a logistic hub by September this year and also put up 30 mega watt solar energy generation plant in Garissa town.” He said the Thai government pledged to promote bilateral ties with Kenya through investment in the energy, Agro and Fruit processing industries for the mutual benefit of both countries. “I am now optimistic that Kenya is likely to make major strides in mitigating the effects of climate change now that main players like Japan have made efforts to bail out vulnerable countries,” Raila said.

The destruction of the Mau Forest Complex by illegal settlers for instance is a major setback to the country’s economy following its value in terms of the support it provides to tourism; and hydro-power generation. It contains the catchment areas for many of

Kenya’s most important rivers. Last year, the UNEP unveiled the “Atlas of Our Changing Environment”, a comprehensive visual overview of the nature and extent of human impact on the planet which displayed a series of satellite images documenting 35 years of incremental destruction of forest area, punctuated by dramatic excisions. According to the Unep, Extreme land-cover changes such as these can have serious consequences both within the forest and downstream in the form of water shortages, health risks, desertification, habitat destruction, sedimentation, erosion, and even alteration of the micro-climate. This rate of forest loss is unsustainable and threatens the security and future development of Kenya.

Besides; these activities have threatened the use of valued indigenous forest products such as: fuel wood; charcoal, hunting, forest food, medicinal plants, grazing, forest fibres, honey, and pole wood. The Government of Kenya requires an estimated US$135 million to restore forest complex. The PM’s trip to Japan follows a number of requests made by President Mwai Kibaki to the Japanese government recently when he held talks with a Japanese delegation led by the vice Chairman of Japan-Africa Union Parliamentarians League, Tetsuro Yano who paid him a courtesy call. Kibaki said the Mau Forest Complex was an important catchment area for the Sondu Miriu River whose water levels had drastically reduced and would affect the hydro power station. Japan is funding phase two of the Sondu Miriu hydro power station at a cost of US$1 million (Ksh. 7.6 billion), a project that is complete and awaiting commissioning, having also funded by way of a loan phase one at a cost of US$160 million (Ksh. 12 billion).

Kibaki asked the Japanese Government to consider financing the Ol- Karia IV Geo thermal project whose assistance he requested during a visit to Japan. Kibaki had also requested the Japanese authorities to give Kenya airways landing rights to start direct flights to Tokyo in order to see a single delivery of its flowers to the South East Asian nation since the product was being delivered there through a third country in Europe. He also sought assistance to put up a structure for the inspection of Kenyan flowers at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport before export to Japan in order to maintain quality and freshness.

© 2010, Newstime Africa. All rights reserved.

Kisumu Ndogo

February 23rd, 2010, 03:59 AM

Giving microfinance sector muscle will spur Kenya towards Vision 2030
Posted Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 00:00

http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/533478/highRes/65963/-/maxw/600/-/we9vvvz/-/PIX+3.jpg
The government through Vision 2030 has identified the financial sector as one of the six priority sectors in realising this vision. The financial sector will be expected to mobilise and channel substantial resources required for investment to expand the production potential and open up the economy.

Accordingly, it is envisaged that the microfinance sub-sector is positioning itself to enhance financial reach, deepening and inclusion as a major player from micro to me so levels of the economy and to be part of this pivotal development. The Microfinance Act was in this regard was operationalised in May 2008.

The Act empowered the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to license and supervise deposit taking microfinance institutions. These are classified into two genres, nationwide and community based. The nationwide institutions are expected to maintain a minimum capital of Sh60 million ($0.8 million) and can roll out their operations across the country. The community based institutions’ minimum capital requirement is Sh20 million ($0.3 million) and are expected to operate in defined administrative/geographical areas.

So far, the CBK has licensed Faulu Kenya DTM to conduct nationwide deposit taking microfinance business. The Kenya Women Finance Trust Deposit Taking Microfinance Limited (KWFT DTM) has been granted an approval in principle. Kenya Women Finance Trust DTM will be granted a license once a few pre- licensing requirements are fulfilled.

Eight other license applications are at various stages of review and appraisal by the Central Bank. Since 2008 the Bank has also approved thirty-three business names which is the first step in the licensing process.

The progress so far in licensing one DTM, the Bank is concerned about the slow uptake of this new avenue for MFIs to be mainstreamed into the financial sector. We are, therefore, engaging the microfinance industry through their umbrella body the Association of Microfinance Institutions (AMFI).

zero88

November 2nd, 2010, 03:58 AM

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WOW Gold (http://www.storeingame.com/) excited about it. Sure I enjoy seeing the new zones

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èđđeůx

November 19th, 2010, 12:04 AM

Right environment key to industrial growth
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/image/view/-/1056102/medRes/215272/-/maxw/600/-/rj62tkz/-/road.jpgDuring the Mashujaa Day celebrations last month, President Kibaki was spot-on when he cast uncertainty on the possibility of Kenya ever attaining middle level economic status unless its industrial sector is developed.

The fact that the President alluded to the importance of industry is an indicator of the value the government attaches to the sector in actualising the country’s development agenda.

A country’s industrial base is crucial to attaining growth. There is need for the government to focus on transforming the industrial sector, which will see the country develop and also make great strides towards achieving Vision 2030.

Comprising of manufacturing, mining, quarrying and construction activities, the industrial sector contributes an estimated 14.4 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector also employs 360,000 people and one million people in the formal and informal sectors respectively — and another 360,000 indirectly.

Although these figures are conservative, they give an indication of the contribution that this important sector makes in terms of government revenue generation and therefore its importance to national development. Manufacturing has been the main engine of economic growth and is considered the leading trade sector in many emerging economies, particularly Asia.

Conversely, the manufacturing sector in Kenya has been declining over years coming fifth last year after agriculture, transport and communication, wholesale and retail, and other services. This poor showing has largely contributed to Kenya’s dismal performance in export trade.

In order to steer the industrial sector ahead as envisioned by President Kibaki, it is critical to enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector by strengthening the production capacity and addition of local content.

There is also need to raise the market share of these products in regional markets, increase the generation and utilisation of research findings, and develop niche products for both existing and new markets.

Problematic areas
Although a conducive business environment is crucial for the growth of the private sector, Kenya still has a myriad of problematic areas which, if addressed, will enhance competitiveness and reduce the cost of doing business.

For industries to prosper, there is need for reliable and affordable electricity. High electricity tariffs have increased the cost of production, making locally manufactured goods uncompetitive. The government should consider reducing the tariffs for industrial consumers from the current Sh10 to Sh11 per Kwh to Sh8.

Also critical to a better business environment is improvement in the quality of roads. There is also need for a change in weighbridge management, which is still riddled with corruption and has not eliminated overloading. Other measures that must be undertaken include removing exorbitant fees and charges; rationalisation of taxation powers of local authorities and regulatory agencies; and reduction of licenses and regulations.

There is need to establish a national industrialisation fund and the recapitalisation of financial institutions including the Industrial Development Bank, Kenya Industrial Estates, and the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation — which can provide investors with finance start-ups.

This intervention will support industrial investments that can help in job creation and value addition to agricultural products.

Besides infrastructure, the largest cost component of growing industries is that related to labour. Indeed, labour market regulations are an important factor in the determination of job market expansion. For a country with very high unemployment rates such as Kenya, there is need to ensure that regulations do not hamper the absorption of young people into the labour market.

It is important to ensure that industrial producers have market access for their products. The government should enhance the open trade policy that Kenya currently practices. Effort should be made to check against the influx of uncustomed and counterfeit imports; development of affirmative action in public procurement for local industrial products by government agencies; and adoption of the invoice discounting policy and other related credit facilities against confirmed orders particularly for small scale operators.

Trade access
In terms of supporting the development of external markets and thus increasing access, the government should consider trade access negotiations that should include discussions to open up additional markets, and protection from non-tariff and other barriers that might affect market realisation and violations by partner states.

Lastly, there is need to rationalise and reorganise all state agencies that are charged with the responsibility of supporting industrial development — a majority of which duplicate roles and contradict each other.

These include the ministry of Trade, and Industrialisation, Keninvest, the Export Processing Zone Authority, Kenya Industrial Estates, and the Kenya Industrial Research Institute. It is important to ensure that all institutions that are in place to support and spur industrialisation are well aligned and rationalised.

If adapted, the measures outlined herein will also enhance the competitiveness of the business environment by reducing the cost of doing business in the country.
BDA (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion%20&%20Analysis/Right%20environment%20key%20to%20industrial%20growth/-/539548/1056098/-/item/0/-/wid0l0z/-/index.html)

èđđeůx

November 19th, 2010, 02:46 AM

High population growth complicates Vision 2030

If technocrats in President Kibaki’s administration are not convinced that Kenya’s growth credentials are fading by the day as the country’s population continues to grow at a pace out of tune with development goals, new fertility projections should clear up the doubts.

Kenya’s multi-billion shilling investment in education and health — the biggest consumers of the national budget — are increasingly coming under threat of failure in the next decade due to population.

Millions of children could find themselves out of school in the coming years while households might not get access to medical facilities as high fertility rates pile pressure on physical and social infrastructure, according to independent analysts and officials at the Ministry of Planning and Vision 2030.

Figures show that averagely there are four children per woman. Economists say at this rate the number of school-going children will double by 2040 — reaching close to three million. This means the Government will, for example, have to double allocation per child under the free primary education from Sh1,120 to about Sh3,000.

“Despite the numerous efforts to address population and development challenges over the years, issues are still emerging that require urgent attention,” said Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya.

“Achieving the goals of Vision 2030 will be impossible if population growth is not contained. Rapid population growth contributes to poverty and deprivation especially in areas where there is competition for resources.” Planning ministry data shows the current level of population growth requires doubling annual spend on health to at least Sh50 billion, to cushion households from raging effects of killer diseases such as malaria.

Economists at the ministry see a lower fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman being ideal, as it is expected to be in tandem with growth in public expenditure over the years. Failure to control population would mean Kenya cutting down on social budget that has been expanding in the last eight years to find headroom for higher investment spending.

“Investing in family planning can help mitigate the impact of population growth on economy, health outcomes, the environment and social economic stability, ” says a Ministry of Planning policy brief just released.

Census data released in September show Kenya has to prepare to feed an additional one million people yearly translating into a population growth rate of 2.8 per cent, above the global average of 2.1 per cent. This would require the economy to grow at the rate of more than 12 per cent to remain in step with development targets.

More analysts agree the realisation of Kenya’s development goal under the Vision 2030 will largely depend on how fast the country slows down population growth, mainly because of the pressure it exerts on public goods and services. “Population growth of this magnitude comes at a high cost to a developing country in terms of providing facilities for the younger population. This means the government must stimulate higher economic growth or stop providing some social programmes,” said Prof Joseph Kieyah, the head of private sector development division at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research an Analysis in a previous interview.

The projections and government spending is placing more scrutiny on the effectiveness of the trickledown economics favoured by President Kibaki administration since coming to power in 2003 as analysts questioned its ability to significantly reduce poverty.

The National Social and Economic Council (Nesc), says while Kenya might realise the target 10 per cent annual rate of economic growth, this will not be enough to lift the estimated 60 per cent of the population out of poverty — even if that level of activity was sustained in the next two decades.

Kenya aims to grow her economy by at least 10 per cent annually by 2012, a medium-term target it hopes will create more jobs, raise household earnings and close the gap between the rich and the poor.

East Africa’s largest economy has come under increasing pressure to find a policy mix that will tame population growth, accelerate economic growth, stem rising cost of living, spur the economy’s ability to create jobs and put more money into the pockets of households by supporting key sectors. “For economic growth to impact on poverty, it has to be sustained at relatively high levels and also well distributed,” Nesc says in a report it released on Monday aiming, to position distribution at the centre of Kenya’s development discourse.

The fertility rate assessment means that despite concerns that education is already taking up more than its fair share of national resources at Sh140 billion in the current fiscal year, the allocation might soon be a too small to sustain the sector and help build the much needed pool of human capital.

Raising GDP
Census results showed that 14.1 million people were attending school last year, another 14.2 million had left school at various levels and that 6.1 million had not attended school at all.

“The challenge before us now is to raise the country’s GDP and inject creativity in our development processes and procedures, ” said Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka at a conference on population and development in Nairobi on Wednesday.

“We must manage the size of Kenyan families in tandem with available resources.” But some analysts, however, maintained that the high population growth could be harnessed to benefit the economy.

“The way out is to tap the thousands of skilled workforce and export both to the region and the diaspora,” said Patrick Obath, the chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa). “If our economy cannot fully absorb these people, other nations have a shortage of key skills which we can take advantage of and boost remittances.”
BusinessDailyAfrica (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate%20News/High%20population%20growth%20complicates%20Vision%202030/-/539550/1055630/-/item/0/-/eels1z/-/index.html)

xJamaax

May 15th, 2011, 10:09 PM

The Kenyan capital, Nairobi, increased its share of the national wealth in the past five years despite government efforts to encourage investments outside the city, newly released data on power consumption indicates.

The share of electricity consumed in Nairobi — as measured by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) revenues — jumped from 53.9 per cent in 2006 or Sh18.3 billion to 56.4 per cent (Sh41.3 billion) last year even as the revenues attributed to Western, Mount Kenya and Coast regions dropped.

Electricity consumption has traditionally been used as a reliable indicator of economic activity and the standards of living in a given location, making the rise of power consumption in Nairobi significant.

Policy analysts said the trend shows total failure of any past attempts to address the imbalance through policy concessions since the 1980s and more recently through dispersal of devolved funds to different parts of the country.

“This trend is not good for Kenya’s social and economic development,” said Mr Tiberius Barasa, the managing director of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a think-tank. “Incentives for investors to go out of Nairobi have not been effective and this explains why the gap between the rich and the poor is widening.”

Higher intake of energy in any area is often an indicator of increased number of electrical equipment — including industrial machinery — pointing to expanding output whose impact is often job creation.

Improvement

It may also be the result of increased use of home appliances such as TV sets and refrigerators that point to improvements in household incomes and rising standards of living.

The 2010 UN Human Development Report ranked Kenya at number 103 in the list of inequality out of the total 169 countries surveyed – making it the 66th most unequal country in the world.

Distribution of the benefits of economic growth has been one of Kenya’s biggest challenges in its quest for long term prosperity and stability, putting ongoing massive spending on infrastructure and social projects in Nairobi under intense scrutiny.

Kenya’s economy expanded from Sh1.45 trillion in 2005 to Sh2.2 trillion last year, but an estimated 38 per cent of the wealth remains in the hands of 10 per cent of the population, leaving 90 per cent of the citizens to share out the rest.

Source (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Inequality+deepens+as+Nairobi+ups+its+share+of+national+wealth/-/539552/1162976/-/item/1/-/2q7nv9/-/index.html)

èđđeůx

May 15th, 2011, 10:19 PM

Manpower survey to be done to identify skills Kenya needs

manpower survey will be started on Monday and will be used to formulate a national employment policy.

Speaking at the ministry of Labour on Friday, permanent secretary Beatrice Kituyi, said the survey will identify the skills Kenya needs.

“The survey will enable the Government address the gaps between the skills and industry requirements,” she said.

It will also help align labour laws and the new constitution.

A similar manpower survey, supported by the International Labour Organisation, is being carried out simultaneously across the five East African countries.

The objective is to take stock of the skills in each country as the movement of labour gathers speed within the East African Community protocol.

The last manpower survey in Kenya was in 1988.

“Having taken over 20 years, the skills database that we have is outdated,” Ms Kituyi said.

There have been concerns by employers that some skills offered in schools and colleges do not match the industry’s needs, while the quality has also been questioned.

Some employers have had to retrain their workers to fit in their employment.

The survey will end in July and target employment establishments, education and training institutions
in public and private sectors. It will also include those working in the informal sectors and Kenyans abroad.

“We will come up with a database on skills available in the country, those being channelled out of education and training institutions with a view to identifying gaps and mismatch in quality and quantity,” she said.

Ms Kituyi said a Cabinet paper will be developed by end of July on the employment policy.

International Labout Organisation director, Pretoria Mr Alexio Vuuren Vic said Kenya’s strategic position in the region required the country to have relevant data on manpower.

“We can not carry on with what looked as success in the past,” he said.

Daily Nation (http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Manpower+survey+to+be+done+to+identify+skills+Kenya+needs++/-/1006/1162174/-/wnr1hb/-/index.html)

èđđeůx

May 19th, 2011, 03:14 AM

Kenya’s industrialisation goal still a mere dream

Kenya’s bid to become a newly industrialised country within a record 19 years from now is slowly turning into a mirage.

From policy documents and pronouncements by politicians the Vision 2030 goals appear so real and achievable, but a dose of pragmatism injected by a succession of factors over the last four years suggests it is yet another case of being so near yet so far.

Economic growth figures for 2010 released on Tuesday showed that the rate of creating new national wealth was only 5.6 per cent, a figure which policy mandarins will revel in if the 2.6 per cent growth rate of the previous year is the benchmark. But is it?

The target growth rate to achieve the economic tiger aspirations is 10 per cent, sustained for at least a period of ten years, about half of the time left before the calendar turns to the year 2030.

Contrasting what is on the ground against policy targets, it is safe to conclude that the vision is now only relevant as a guiding principle rather than as a tangible bar to be scaled.

This year has already been discounted as the one when the magic double digit growth is feasible with the planners expecting a 3.5 per cent return.

Moans over high inflation and weak exchange rate prompted by external shocks like petroleum prices abound as do those on the country’s 2.9 per cent growth rate.

Yet these are challenges that the drafters of the vision should have foreseen and formulated actions to circumvent.

In the petroleum sector, for instance, no consistent effort has been made since the 1974 oil crisis to create storage facilities that can help the country ride through high oil prices by moving from the erratic spot to the more predictable futures market.

For all its merits, the Vision 2030 blueprint appears to be pegged on the elements and international markets being favourable, a leap of faith that even the most pious devotee would find difficult to take.

With the country producing less and less of its industrial and human consumption, a retail economy increasingly fed by imports is suffocating opportunities for growth and job creation in manufacturing and agriculture.

High production costs are sending investors away, making the country’s population appear like a liability when it is an asset waiting to be harnessed.

Until the foundations are right, mourning over external shocks and high market prices will become a soundtrack for every development target that is missed.

Technology parks, resort cities and high speed rails are good on paper, but they will not be attracted to an environment where simpler conveniences - water, roads and power - are inefficient or absent.

BusinessDailyAfrica (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Kenyas+industrialisation+goal+still+a+mere+dream/-/539548/1165300/-/l9y9uy/-/index.html)

Okay editorial, but sometimes I feel as if some of the writers for Nation Media's papers are a bit too negative. It's 2011, 2030 is 19 years away. Kenya could hit double digit growth at latest by 2015 and sustain it for 15 years. It's an uphill fight that's being slowly fought.

xJamaax

June 17th, 2011, 09:36 AM

Eldoret rolls out Sh40b prime real estate plan

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/image/view/-/1183788/medRes/270669/-/maxw/600/-/73hl3k/-/bd-golffc.jpg

group of investors has unveiled a Sh40 billion leisure and property development plan in Eldoret town, giving western Kenya its first taste of the seven-year real estate market boom that has been mainly concentrated in the capital, Nairobi.

The ambitious project, known as Sergoit Golf and Wildlife Resort, is hinged around the theme of luxury living, leisure and recreation in a design that partly mirrors Nairobi’s Tatu City development.

Tourism minister Najib Balala officially launched the mega real estate plan that will also feature a wildlife sanctuary, signaling the intention of its backers to make it a hub for visitors to the western tourist circuit.

The plan is to build the prime residential, sports and business village that is located 15 kilometres north east of Eldoret town in four phases. It will feature more than 2,000 villas, three golf courses, a five-star hotel, a shopping mall, conference centre, private hospital and an airstrip on a 3,100-acre piece of land.

“Our intention is to develop a concept that offers Rift Valley residents and Kenyans at large to own property in a secure, gated and well serviced environment,” said Mr Joshua Chepkwony, the chairman of Sergoit Holdings, the company behind the project. “The goal is to ultimately create a well planned, self-contained Satellite City of Eldoret.”

Sergoit Holdings Limited has set 2016 as the date for completion. Each phase will take a year to finish and will be purely financed by private investors.

“Each of the four phases will cost about Sh10 billion and we expect to finish the first phase in a year’s time,” said Mr Chepkwony. He said directors of the company were in talks with KCB and Cooperative banks to finance those seeking to invest in the property.

Mr Chepkwony, who is also the chairman of Jamii Telecoms, said the idea was born out of discussions with business-minded Kenyans from the region and is a hybrid of several ideas borrowed from South Africa, Nairobi’s Tatu City, Thika Greens and Kiambu’s Migaa.

“Our vision was further endorsed by Eldoret’s twin legacies of sports and wildlife tourism that should get a big boost from the development,” he said.

Business Daily (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Eldoret+rolls+out+Sh40b+prime+real+estate+plan/-/539550/1183784/-/14wxa4kz/-/index.html)