Earlier this year, I discussed the Konza ICT Park and its opportunities.
During Easter, I drove back there to size up recent developments.
I was very disappointed with what I saw. The malaise that afflicts all our urban centres has struck the neighbouring Malili market centre.
Temporary shacks made of corrugated iron sheets and all manner of wood, the kind that I cautioned against in my January article are coming up all around.
They look very recent. And they are so many they seem to obstruct even the decent formal structures coming up. They’ve eclipsed the market centre.
I found myself wondering……if I were a prospective investor from New Delhi, Singapore or Texas and came over on a fact finding mission and sat to reflect over tea at Malili, what impression would I get? Would I deem it worth my resources and efforts given the horizon shaping up?
As I sat thinking this through over tea, I called one of my friends, a planning expert, and shared what I saw and my worries.
We observed that if the impunity demonstrated in this regard is not arrested in good time, our grand technology park plan will be undermined.
We further observed that the shacks are certainly not the work of the poor. No. It’s only the rich who can quickly afford to put away some spare cash to bring up such shacks so fast and leave them there as “facts-on-the-ground” for speculative ownership.
They are the ones with resources to make enforcement officers “look away”. The leadership of Makueni County Council must be held accountable.
One gets the impression that the plots could have been formally allocated recently. If so, then those allocated must be compelled to bring up developments aligned to the stature and purpose of the ICT Park. On February 24 this year, the Department of Physical Planning of the Ministry of Lands had an entire half page advert in local dailies announcing intentions to prepare a Konza Local Physical Development Plan.
This will be a six- month effort to develop a framework for the Konza Techno City at Malili and is meant to be participatory, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral and call for the partnership of interested individuals and actors from private, public and community organizations.
The plan will address issues relating to land use, integrated transport systems, public utility land and environmental conservation issues around the Park, among others.
All current and future construction around Malili should therefore be temporarily frozen to allow completion of this plan following which all such developments should be scrutinised for due compliance.
The Ministry of Lands officers in Nairobi and Makueni, the county council and the Ministry of Information officers charged with the design and marketing of the Park will need to intervene expeditiously or else this most strategic market centre to the park develops into an eye sore with aesthetics far below expectations. This would subsequently downgrade the national and global appeal of the Park.
It is also important for bureaucrats in Nairobi to find time to explain these things to leaders, land owners and users at the site and in Makueni and Machakos Counties. In a forum I attended recently in Machakos, some participants complained that the government asks their support on the Park yet it hasn’t sufficiently explained the grand plan to them.
This is a valid concern which is easy to respond to. Clarity of government intent would perhaps even help to stop the developments. The writer is a land expert
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