The Merti-Isiolo road. The elevation of Isiolo to a resort city is drawing closer to reality with the government mapping 6,200 acres of land on which investors will build proposed tourist facilities including amusement parks. Photo/FILE
The elevation of Isiolo to a resort city is drawing closer to reality with the government mapping 6,200 acres of land on which investors will build proposed tourist facilities including amusement parks.
Even though the government did not state the amount of money set aside for acquiring the land in the outskirts of the town, property agents said that it would cost up to Sh6 billion at current market rates.
“We are just waiting for the county council to approve our request before we proceed with the designs,” said the Ministry of Tourism chief economist Simon Korir.
Mr Korir said the land would not be bought outright because the County Council of Isiolo owns it as trust land on behalf of the government. The actual designs of the resort city would cost Sh500 million. Building the resort is expected to cost $184 million (Sh15 billion) of which $83 million (Sh6.8 billion) would be raised from the private sector.
Besides the resort city, an international airport would be constructed in the town as a node for a railway line, pipeline and highway to be built under the Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor.
The resort city will include accommodation facilities, theatres for international festivals, water sport facilities, amusement parks, art exhibition, skiing and golf courses.
Other resort cities under Vision 2030, which include Kilifi, Diani, Lamu, and Turkana aim boost growth in the tourism industry. Last year, nearly two million tourists visited Kenya bringing in Sh98 billion in earnings.
Tourism minister Danson Mwazo said that the sector targets to raise Sh130 billion from tourism this year, with three million visitors expected.
The Voi MP replaced Mvita MP Najib Balala as Tourism minister in a cabinet reshuffle announced last week.
The resort cities seek to attract high-end tourists who will see the government increase expenditure per visitor to Sh70,000 up from the current Sh56,000.
The expectation that the Isiolo resort city would spur the growth of other sectors such as livestock production and transport has seen the price of land in Isiolo surge to Sh9 million an acre within the township and Sh1 million in the outskirts.
“The promise of major infrastructure projects has pushed up land prices more than three times in the last two years,” said National Chamber of Commerce and Trade vice chairman Hussein Jama. The government is expected to start marketing the resort city by June next year. “We need to start promotions of the proposed city in order to invite investors,” said Kenya Investment Authority acting managing director Julius Koros.
Local investors
The resort city would be in close proximity to key tourist attraction sites around Isiolo like the Buffalo Springs, Samburu National Park, Shaba National Reserves, Mt Kenya National Park and Meru National Park
The population in the northern Kenya is expected to provide a market of 2.3 million people and contribute an estimated 13 per cent to national Gross Domestic Product.
The government hopes to encourage local participation in the projects through the co-operative movement. Pastoralists would be empowered through the construction of a Sh800 million abattoir to help them supply meat to the local and export markets.
A 136-kilometre road from Isiolo to Merille at Kenya’s border with Ethiopia has been completed while another linking Isiolo to Garissa is planned.
Ethiopia has also finished constructing its road to the Kenyan border and would build railway line as part of the Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor project.
The development blueprint aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrialised middle-income nation by 2030.
