24/06/2014
KAJIADO TO BENEFIT FROM FROM KONZA TECHNO CITY IN BORDER TRUCE.
Governors of Makueni, Kajiado and Machakos counties will now sit on the board of directors of the KShs 850 billion Konza technology city if a Bill becomes law. An earlier Bill amended by the CS describes Konza as the “parcel of land known as Land Reference Number 9918/5 located within Makueni County measuring approximately 2023.6 hectares.” The old bill also said that the Makueni governor, or his designate, shall sit on the board, leaving out his Kajiado and Machakos counterparts, implying that Makueni County was to be the key beneficiary of revenues from the project expected to be complete by 2017.
The shift is aimed at spreading ownership of Konza Technopolis among the three counties and to ease a boundary row that has seen Machakos and Makueni claim ownership of the multi-billion- shilling project. ICT CS said the inclusion of the governors would help appease the warring parties and calm political tensions.
The three governors will join nine (9) other directors of the Technopolis, including; the PSs in the ministry of ICT, four(4) independent directors hired competitively and appointed by the CS ICT and one from the Architectural Association of Kenya. The board of directors will select investors as well as map and lease land to firms that will set up shop at Konza. The board will also finance the construction of infrastructure and shepherd public-private partnerships (PPPs) where the government provides land and builds key infrastructure such as roads, railway, water, telecoms and sewerage systems as well as security.
Konza City is meant to be part of the Special Economic Zones expected to replace the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) and hopefully create more than 200,000 jobs. Konza Technopolis will start laying road and electricity networks from next month after receiving an additional Sh400 million from Parliament, pushing its total allocation to Sh900 million.
But a 10-kilometre boundary buffer around Konza ended up touching Kajiado, Machakos and Makueni counties, whose governors have been fighting over the location of the Technopolis. The largest part of the project will be in Makueni with sections extending to Machakos and Kajiado counties.
The Konza Technopolis Development Authority Bill 2014 proposes that businesses which set up shop in the city be exempted from paying 30 per cent income tax for the first 10 years and 16 per cent VAT, which will also apply to the goods they buy for their operations. http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/3-governors-set-for-Konza-board-in-border-truce/-/539546/2359300/-/s694adz/-/index.html
