The report, the second in a series that analyses business regulations from the perspective of small and medium enterprises in 13 Kenyan cities, documents business reforms in all four areas measured. These are starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property and enforcing contracts.
According to the report Malaba town ranked top on the ease of doing business. It was followed by Narok, Thika, Garissa and Eldoret. Nairobi was the worst city in terms of the ease of doing business, followed by Nakuru, Kakamega, Nyeri and Kilifi.
Raila noted that it was not due to lack of strategic mineral resources that Kenya is facing problems but because of generation and generations of bureaucracies, which need to be overhauled.
He pointed out that the talk by Kenyans of setting up a ‘one- stop-shop’ where investors can obtain business permits is merely a theory because relevant public institutions have refused to cede power to a central place. “We all speak the same language everywhere we go about one-stop-shop. It is just an issue on paper because all these institutions have refused to cede authority to the centre,” said Raila.
The concept of one-stop shop is meant to issue business permits to local and foreign investors from a central place in order to avoid the hassles of running up and down in different Government ministries and departments.
