Athi River/Kitengela Town Development Trends
by Harambee Investments Team
The Athi River/Kitengela Town area has quietly experienced significant growth in the past 5 years and is poised for explosive economic growth in the next few years. A big factor is the expansion of Nairobi, which has seen its population grow to approximately 4 million people resulting in an insatiable need for housing, as well as commercial and industrial zones. The result has been the march of economic activity southward along the Nairobi-Athi River corridor as developers, the Kenya Government and the Wananchi at large search for habitable areas.
This is great news for those who missed the Ngong town investment opportunity. Purchasers of land or real estate in Ngong town during its nascent days, has been greatly rewarded with exponential returns on property values. The Athi River/Kitengela Town area presents an even greater opportunity for the keen investor as evidenced by the following factors.
Self-sufficient urban town model
The area has solid fundamentals for a self-sufficient residential town with a bustling business district:
- Commerce and Industry - The Kenya Export Processing Zone (EPZ), as well as some premier blue chip companies and government parastatals are located in Athi River - East African Portland Cement Factory, Athi River Mining, Kenya Meat Commission, Kenchic Ltd, to name a few.
- Education - It is the location of one of the country’s fastest growing educational institutions - Daystar University.
- Residential and Civic - It is the location of existing residential communities. The UK-affiliated Superior Homes Company, among other real estate development companies, is engaged in the execution of a planned housing development on a 500-acre swathe of land. This development will offer residential units as well as schools, recreation facilities and religious functions.
Future telecommunications hub
- The Kenyan Government is committed to boldly stepping into the world arena of global communications by completing within 3 years, its fiber-optics sub-marine cable project.
- The goals of this project include greatly increasing the telecommunications interconnectivity between the eastern seaboard of Africa, and the world; making telecommunication cheaper and accessible to the region’s average citizens; enabling speedier connectivity for the masses.
- Athi River has been deemed the future hub for this telecommunications development for which the Kenyan government has set aside 10 thousand acres of land.
Nairobi road expansion
An often mentioned "drawback" to the physical location of an outskirt town like Athi River, is its relatively far distance from Nairobi. The 30-minute or so commute is poised to be greatly reduced when the portion of Mombasa road between JKIA and Machakos (town after Athi River) is expanded into an 8-lane highway. The commute time between Athi River and Nairobi's city center, is estimated to be easily reduced by at least half.
The Athi River/Kitengela Town area's growth and development potential is clear. As a budding community offering opportunities to purchase land or real estate, it strongly merits the title, 'An Investors Dream'.