Smart towns a sure-fire strategy for minting jobs and fuelling economic growth
Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi (in yellow headgear) during the official launch of the ongoing beautification of Weyumirerie town in Laikipia East. The project under the smart town initiative will see towns in the county, including Ol Jabet, upgraded into modern towns.
What you need to know:
- Approved physical plans are vital for legal valuation rolls and for land titling.
- A detailed participatory process determines the spatial location of various facilities and land uses.
- Land titles are necessary for modern urban development.
Faced with multiple defections of grassroots mobilisers, our competitors sent their running mate to Laikipia for the second time in as many weeks.
They brought with them foul language, insults and in-fighting.
The visit also exposed their soft underbelly. Their key figures have scant or no understanding of key economic relationships.
This was best demonstrated at Ol Jabet, one of a dozen smart towns, now under implementation.
Urging a rather small crowd to support them, the crowd responded that they want smart towns. What is a smart town? Well, here goes.
We start off with physical plans. A detailed participatory process determines the spatial location of various facilities and land uses.
Mind you a physical plan is incomplete until all the approvals, including by the county assembly, are in place.
Approved physical plans are vital for legal valuation rolls and for land titling.
A valid and legal valuation roll is the basis of property taxes, a key driver of own-source revenue for counties.
Land titles are necessary for modern urban development.
No one will develop the land if they do not have ownership documents. No bank will offer a mortgage on untitled land! So, land titling is ongoing in all the 12 smart towns under development across Laikipia.
Fibre-optic ducts
The next step is infrastructure build-up. Once we have located and surveyed the roads, we improve them to bitumen standard and build drainage and such things as fibre-optic ducts to avoid interference with roads in order to install other services in the future.
Naturally, our smart towns come with modern solar street lights, adequate parking, a bus park, improved markets, fibre-optic connectivity, water, sewer system and an upgraded Laikipia Health Service (LHS) outlet!
The Laikipia County infrastructure bond, the first of its kind in Kenya, is to finance the smart towns of Dol dol, Kalalu, Matanya, Posta, Karuga, Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Pesi and Kinamba.
But the real question is why are we developing these towns? Jobs! First, the physical build-up creates construction jobs.
In the current programme, we expect 8,000 direct jobs. Second, the private sector responds almost immediately.
In Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Rumuruti and Ol Jabet where we started, land owners are themselves putting up modern buildings, creating more construction jobs.
But it is the intensive business development and the economic stimulus accompanying the smart towns' programme that complete the picture.
First, in every town, we are developing modern working spaces for small manufacturing businesses to work from.
In Ol Jabet, we are expanding the existing workshops to accommodate an additional 150 enterprises.
This will make the town attractive to financial institutions, service stations, supermarkets and eateries.
To ensure access to well-structured, affordable credit, we have put in place a Sh3.3 billion market-based economic stimulus.
We have done so by working with Kenya's leading banks. By June, 454 businesses had benefited from this programme.
@NdirituMuriithi is the Governor of Laikipia County
