Taxpayers to spend Sh4bn on moving KTTC out of Gigiri

State Department of Vocational and Technical Training Principal Secretary Dr Margaret Mwakima. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NMG

What you need to know:

  • The Education ministry has acquired 100 acres in Ngong where the Kenya Technical Trainer’s College (KTTC), which has been in existence since 1978, will be moved from its current location in Nairobi's Gigiri estate which is in the diplomatic district.
  • The ministry said Sh4 billion is the initial capital required to start infrastructure development for the new KTTC.

Taxpayers will spend over Sh4 billion to move a technical college from the leafy upmarket Gigiri area to Ngong to pave the way for establishing an exclusive diplomatic enclave.

The Education ministry has acquired 100 acres in Ngong where the Kenya Technical Trainer’s College (KTTC), which has been in existence since 1978, will be moved from its current location in Nairobi's Gigiri estate which is in the diplomatic district.

The ministry said Sh4 billion is the initial capital required to start infrastructure development for the new KTTC.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has already directed that the KTTC, located next to the United States Embassy and United Nations complex that hosts United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, be relocated.

The State Department for Vocational and Technical Training told Parliament that the Cabinet approved the relocation of KTTC to pave way for the creation of a diplomatic enclave in line with the Vienna Convention.

“Signatories to the Vienna Convention, to which Kenya is a party are required to identify an area with proper security, good infrastructure, proper social setup among others to house diplomatic missions,” Margaret Mwakima, the Principal Secretary told MPs during the review of the national budget last week.

Dr Mwakima said because of the United Nations Office in Nairobi, the Unep, and other diplomatic missions’ proximity to KTTC, the college land was easily found to fit the requirements of the Vienna convention.

“We have negotiated on a win-win basis. The need for land for the diplomatic enclave is more than what we had prepared to provide.

“If we were to release the land, the only option was for us to get the structures along Ngong road,” Dr Mwakima told the Education Committee.

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