Konza City’s Eng. John Tanui, and Tatu City’s owner and developer, Rendeavour have jointly announced the two upcoming cities will collaborate in a move meant to help them attract investors to Kenya. The companies have said that the collaboration will focus on building both mega-projects’ investment policies and positioning the two cities at vantage positions for both local and international investors.

This comes at a time when the country is seeking to bounce back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has increased uncertainty around investment opportunities.

Speaking during a courtesy call to Konza Technopolis, Mr Mendenhall said: “We are excited as Tatu City to be visiting Konza today. As sister cities with a common goal of easing the burden of urbanisation in Kenya and also promoting investment in Kenya, we shall be working together in creating these opportunities.”

Speaking to the specific areas of partnership, Mr Mendenhall said that Tatu City and Konza, as Special Economic Zones (SEZ), had identified a number of common interests to attract investment in Kenya.

“We have agreed to increase the frequency of our meetings. We have appointed teams to particularly look into the operationalisation of the Special Economic Zones to attract local and foreign direct investments by creating a favourable economic environment,” Mendenhall said.

KoTDA’s CEO Eng John Tanui said that they were glad to continue with the collaboration following an initial engagement with Tatu City in 2017. He said that the collaboration will address mutual smart cities issues on continuing to improve the ease of doing business in Kenya.

“By Konza being a Special Economic Zone as Tatu is, we are both very keen to attract investment in Kenya. Tatu City and ourselves are very ready to collaborate with other government and private agencies to attract more investment in our country,” said Eng Tanui.

He said the two entities will share experience and insights and help each other in providing solutions towards building stronger strategies to attract investment in the country.

Eng Tanui added that with the mega infrastructure such as the Konza National Data Centre being operational at Konza, they will explore how both entities can benefit from the resources as they look forward to more collaborations with other partners and agencies outside Kenya.

He noted that with both cities having entities such as SEZ and Special Planning Areas, they have common areas through which they can engage, solve challenges and build experiences.

He indicated that a team comprising representatives from Konza and Tatu City will spearhead the implementation of the partnership.

KoTDA Directors Mr Ken Waibochi, Eng Kaburu Mwirichia and Rendeavour’s Deputy Country Head, Mr Evans Dimba, were also present during the visit.

Both Tatu City and Konza City are building on 5,000 acres, each with mixed-use developments, including homes, schools, offices, medical centres, nature parks, sport & entertainment complex and manufacturing for more than 250,000 residents and 30,000 day visitors each.

So far, KoTDA’s National Data Centre and Konza Complex are complete while horizontal infrastructure on Phase One is ongoing. In Tatu city, two schools educating 3,000 students daily, 60 businesses and 3,000 homes are completed or under development.