East Africa Economic Report

The technology Park will be a prominent feature in the city  THE KENYA GOVERNMENT  will host the first Konza city investors conference in August. The event will bring together 500 local and international investors in a three- day conference to discuss among others, the financing models of the city. Also to be discussed will be best practice cases. Konza Techno City aims to catapult Kenya into an ICT giant by 2030. It will place Kenya firmly on the competition seat with such global BPO, KPO and ITO giants as India and China. Dubbed the  silicon Savannah of Africa, Konza ICT City is a green field project that will be home of Africa's Computerisation drive–something similar to Silicon Valley in the US. The CBD: an impressive Skyline in the Middle of Savannah  The 20-year project will be developed in four five-year phases for a total estimated cost of US$7 billion. The first phase will cost an estimated US$2.3 billion of which infrastructure will cost US$1 billion. T

A geothermal Plant at Ol Karia in kenya KENYA, AFRICA'S geothermal power giant,  has changed its business model to speed up geothermal power generation. The new model involves un bundling the drilling function from the generation function. Drilling will remain in the hands of the government, while generation will be in the hands of the private sector. The new model is working well and is expected to add an additional 400MW into the national grid come July 2016.  The government has created a company to take over the drilling function. Geothermal Development Corporation, GDC, plans to develop some 3000MW by 2020 rising to 5500MW in 2031, an appraisal report seen by this publication, says. GDC’s will develop the steam wells and install the wellheads and then concession the wells to power producers who shall build, operate and maintain generating stations. The generators will sign PPAs with the power distributor in the country. KPLC. Previously both the drilling and th

Crystaballs depict him as a  weak and incompetent President   AS KENYA trudges on towards the next general elections, it is time to define our expectations of the next president. So far all activity is centered on  side-shows such as:  How to avoid violence come the next elections and how to create national unity. Peace is important in this country, but we also know violence is incited by politicians unwilling to cede power. My take on this is; with four Kenyans facing charges at the ICC over political violence, chances are nil that anyone would dare incite violence. That is therefore a side show. The real issues are bread and butter issues and that is what this series hopes to bring into focus. This series will examine   a candidate’s suitability on the basis of four, nay five criteria, mainly bread and butter issues. These are development policy, trade policy, Foreign Policy and his stand on integrity and respect for governance institutions. Where possible we shall provi