New 4,000 acre city planned near Machakos

By KENNEDY KANGETHE | June 12, 2013

Machakos Governor Dr Alfred Mutua. Photo/ FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 12 – The construction of a new 4,000-acre city near Machakos town is set to break ground in August, according to the County Governor Dr Alfred Mutua.

The county government plans to build new hospitals, schools, and residential areas of different income levels on the land that is adjacent to the current town.

“The old Machakos town is congested; we can’t even get offices for my ministers, there is no space to set up anything right now. We need to create room even for banks,” Mutua told Capital FM Business.

Earlier this month the county hosted an investors conference to discuss and facilitate investment in real estate, tourism, health, water, transport, banking, and agriculture among others.

“We signed 125 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with an input of Sh289 billion during the investors briefing,” he revealed. “Our idea is to be one step ahead of Konza City in order to accrue its benefits.”

Mutua said he wanted to transform Machakos into a module county for Kenya through fighting poverty and creating employment.

“We will facilitate and not frustrate business,” he said.

The county has also set aside 50 acres to create an entertainment city to house film and music studios, as well as land for drama and action production.

“We plan to create our own Hollywood in the county dubbed Machahood.” he quipped.

“We have also established more than 1,000 acres of land around the county, for solar firms and wind turbines so as to generate over 500 megawatts of power to supplement the national grind for our development needs,” he added.

A new airport near Konza City will also be built through a public private partnership module in addition to airstrips in every constituency.