Economy

Nairobi in the bottom 20 list of pleasant cities

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Aerial View of Nairobi. The city's ranking was mainly hurt by the poor state of security, corruption as well as rickety public schools and hospitals. PHOTO | FILE

Nairobi has been ranked in the bottom 20 of global cities that are pleasant to live in, haunted by insecurity, poor infrastructure and health care, an Economist Intelligence Unit poll shows.

The poll, which was released Tuesday, ranks Kenya’s capital at position 122 in the list of 140 cities.

Nairobi was ranked position 124 last year, but the Economist Intelligence Unit reckons that bulk of the improved cities were driven mainly by the decline of other capitals whose countries are faced with unrest.

Kenya’s capital’s ranking was mainly hurt by the poor state of security, corruption as well as rickety public schools and hospitals.

Poor roads, unstable electricity and irregular supply has consigned Nairobi to the tail end of the ranking, which had 14 Africa cities with the Kenya capital ranked sixth in the continent behind Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cairo.

The rankings offer a sneak preview of a country’s level of development and are used as a tool when seeking to set shop in new countries and payment of expatriates.

The EIU’s survey assesses the livability of cities based on factors, including stability and the quality of health care, culture, the environment, education and infrastructure. 

READ: Nairobi up 30 spots in expensive cities ranking

It is also important because it determines a city’s ability to attract and retain foreign investment, expatriates and tourists.

“Assessing livability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages,” says the survey.

Nairobi’s low ranking could help multinational companies justify high salaries and hardship allowances they pay employees stationed in the Kenyan capital.

But it could also work in the reverse, encouraging transactional companies to overlook Kenya while considering where to invest.

Australia’s Melbourne tops the ranking as the world’s most pleasant city to live in for the fourth year running while Vienna (Austria) and Canada’s cities – Vancouver and Toronto – captured 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.

Bottom was Damascus, capital of war-torn Syria.