Konza authority works on land lease model to weed out speculators

The government has announced plans to lease out land at the Konza City technopolis in a bid to weed out speculative buyers seeking to cash in on re selling the land.

Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) Chairman Dr Reuben Mutiso said vetting will be done to investors before they fully commit themselves to the multi-billion shilling project.

The KoTDA has presented 60 acres of land to investors in phase one of the project.

“We are approaching matters of land at Konza very different. We are not a land selling company. We are leasing out land to those developers who will be vetted. The developers will be real developers and not speculators. Konza is not a place where we would come when you get the land you start going around to look for people to buy the land and post some signs saying that land is for sale,” said Dr Mutiso.

The winning firms will be given a lease on the parcels of land where they will build approved structures as per the Konza city master plan.

KoTDA Chief Executive Officer John Tanui said the authority is pushing for enactment of the Konza bill to enable it sign leases with investors.

“We are in discussions with the parliament and we expect to table the bill within the current parliament, which is designed to position Konza City to achieve its dream and Vision 2030,”said Mr Tanui.

Over 400 investors have expressed interest in taking up space for the construction of commercial and public amenities within phase one of the project.

KoTDA has strong linkages with universities as accelerators for the development of innovations.

Seven universities including Jomo Kenyatta university of Agriculture and Technology, the  University of Nairobi, Technical university of Kenya and Multimedia University among others.

The South Korean government has also committed Sh10 billion for the construction of a public research facility dubbed, Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Plans to construct an institute that will provide quality education in science and technology will begin in April 2017.