Is Kenya Ready for Mega Cities?

While these cities may guarantee Kenya's economic growth, critics argue that such ambitious developments are schemes to shut out the poor. Are we jumping the gun? HAROLD AYODO explores the planners’ megalomania

The new wave of ambitious cities is set to revolutionise real estate and put Kenya on the path to achieving the Vision 2030.

Mega cities are mixed use communities that have a heavy public-private partnership component.

They are self-reliant in terms of management and provision of amenities.

According to Kenya Vision 2030 Director of Strategy Andrew Toboso, the cities within cities will propel the country into a middle-income economy.

Vision 2030 is a government economic blueprint for attaining a middle-income status by 2030.

Vision 2030 in the built environment is designed to permit rapid growth while ensuring civic amenities and infrastructure grow with the needs of the population.

It is in this light that the Government has encouraged investment in these mega cities.

"Construction of techno-cities like Malili (Konza) and new cities like Tatu is the way to go as the economy draws global attention," Toboso says.

The Sh800 billion Konza Technology City will sit on 5,000 acres of land in Machakos County, 60km south of Nairobi.

Toboso says Nairobi has of late seen an influx of professionals from other countries, but its old geographical area is overstretched.

According to Information PS Bitange Ndemo, the groundbreaking of the technopolis that is planned in four phases will be done by President Kibaki this month.

Also known as the Malili ICT City, Konza, which is set to be Africa’s Silicon Valley, features civic and commercial architecture and will house the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) technology park and several corporate companies.

"Topographical work is ongoing at the sight and many investors are showing interest before the President breaks ground," Ndemo says.

Ndemo recently unveiled the master plan for phase one of the project that has faced numerous hurdles, including encroachment by private developers.

Flagship projects

Phase one of the development includes a BPO park, five-star hotels, a stadium and social amenities typical of a modern city.

International Design Engineers and Pell Frischmann (London) came up with master planning options for the project while local information communication technology consultants, Summit Strategies Limited, prepared a preliminary market demand data for the BPO sector.

The International Finance Corporation — part of the World Bank — commissioned international consultants to study the master plan.

The consultants are also to scrutinise its economic viability and develop a detailed development proposal for the 20-year multi-billion shilling project.

Ndemo says the development that is among the Vision 2030 flagship projects will host several skyscrapers.

"The Government is creating opportunities to encourage partnerships with the private sector towards revolutionising real estate for development," says Toboso.

Prof Peter Ngau, University of Nairobi Department of Urban and Regional Planning scholar, says the neotowns, techno-cities or cities within cities were borrowed from South Africa, Cairo and Asia.

Another mega city, Tatu City, a proposed residential and commercial project on 1,035 hectares of land, is causing ripples.

Tatu is approximately 16km northeast of Nairobi and 5km to the east of Kiambu town.

The real estate mega project entails an exclusive up-market city to accommodate 62,000 residents in well-planned modern homes.

Other developments in Tatu include office blocks, shopping malls and industrial parks only synonymous to Sandton City in the suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.

To attract foreign investors, the exclusive suburb city was recently showcased at the prestigious annual property conference in Cannes, France.

Designers from Capita Symonds in the UK and the local partner, Planning Systems as well as the lawyer and directors of Tatu City, gave a public presentation at Strathmore University last month, shedding more light on the dynamics of the project. Capita Symonds has set the cost of the project at $5 billion (Sh450 billion).

According to experts in the building industry, the emergence of what they term cities within cities is a new wave in Africa.

Ngau says the neocities are new forms of urbanism in the continent.

Diaspora market

He gives examples of mega cities in Africa, which include Sandton City (Johannesburg), Festival City (Cairo), Sungate (Namibia), Al Morgan (Khartoum) and Levy Business Park (Lusaka).

According to the don, heavyweight investors in real estate in Africa have shifted to top gear with ambitions to transform the sub-sector.

Johannesburg-based Renaissance Africa (a subsidiary of a Russian investment bank, Renaissance Capital), is leading the pack.

Ngau says Renaissance, which has heavily invested in Tatu City, recently bought farmland near Harare, Zimbabwe and four coffee plantations close to Nairobi where Tatu City is to be constructed.

The large-scale property developers have also bought or negotiating to buy farms around capital cities such as Lusaka, Luanda, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Lagos and Accra.

The planners of these cities expect the greatest source of demand for residential properties and business opportunities offered in the new mini-cities to come from the Diaspora.

Currently, there are over 170 million people of African descent and millions born in Africa living abroad, who the developers hope may be attracted back home.

Urbanism drawbacks

Ngau says the models were borrowed from Singapore, Dubai and Doha.

According to Toboso, similar developments will be witnessed in other counties apart from Nairobi because the Government is improving infrastructure to attract investors.

The developments are expected to stand out as they involve construction of entirely new cities and not rehabilitation of the existing built environment.

"Constructing entirely new urban landscapes enables city builders to bypass the messy problems associated with the current state of urbanism in Africa," says Ngau.

Ngau points out the major drawbacks in urbanism in the continent as broken-down infrastructure and crowded streetscapes.

Others are lack of land-use zoning and code regulation, traffic gridlock and increased street crime, which the new cities promise to deal with.

However, it is not all rosy as a section of critics argue that these ambitious developments might not work because they are ‘mimicking’ Dubai, Doha or Singapore, which have established infrastructure and technology to support such huge developments.

The doubting Thomases consider the cities inappropriate and an elite urbanism, as they try to lock themselves out of the rest of the city.

In Kenya, it is a genuine concern that the ultra-modern developments may be orchestrated schemes to shut out the poor.

Economic opportunities

Nevertheless, optimists argue that the cities do not necessarily try to keep out the big, bad city, but rather, give the residents the actual city — modern development.

"Research shows that the neo-cities bring economic opportunities and employment, therefore achieving the visions and plans for governments," Toboso says.

The Kenya Vision 2030 director of strategy says counties and municipalities should compete to attract similar investments.

"Our (Kenya’s) goal is to achieve an annual Growth Domestic Product (GDP) of ten per cent — what China has enjoyed over the last decade," Toboso says.

According to Toboso, the new cities will transform employment markets, enhance social infrastructure and build national institutions.

"They will represent an ambitious vision of a modern, inclusive and sustainable Kenya, showcasing dynamism and prosperity," Toboso says.

Ngau, however, cautions that there could be unexpected divergent views on the upcoming technopolis.

"The trend is astonishing, as free markets are usually associated with anarchic growth and uncontrolled sprawl rather than with structured urbanisation," says Ngau.

He says the corporate sector planning and city design should be incorporated to ensure social, economic and environmental sustainability and the protection of public interest.