Isiolo, Marsabit leaders seek investors

A cross section of the delegates who attended the GES Pre-Summit Conference at KICC skim through a copy of Equity News. As part of its external communication strategy, Equity Bank Kenya has been publishing a quarterly Newspaper showcasing local and regional entrepreneurial success stories.

 

Isiolo and Marsabit leaders have appealed to foreign investors, who attended the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, to invest in their counties.

Isiolo Governor Godana Doyo, who also attended the summit, called for investors to partner with the county in actualising the proposed Isiolo Resort City through a private-public partnership at a cost of over Sh100 billion.

Mr Doyo said the county government will put in place measures to ensure locals fully reap benefits from the resort city.

The proposed city, which will have various attractions such as hotels, casinos, golf courses, camel derbies and horse racing among other activities, is part of projects under the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor.

Isiolo will also host an international airport, a mega dam, an abattoir, a highway linking Kenya with landlocked Ethiopia, two railway lines and two oil pipelines.

The governor said the county requires local and foreign investors to invest in its three game parks, Buffalo Springs, Shaba and Bisanadi, as well as the proposed resort city.

“We require investments from locals and foreigners to set up hotels, campsites in our game parks which have rare wildlife only found in this region,” he said.

With a modern abattoir set to be operation by mid next year, Doyo also called for investment in the livestock sub-sector.

In Marsabit, Laisamis MP Joseph Lekuton said the county has benefited from a Sh75 billion wind power project courtesy of a public, private partnership.

The project at Sarime, near Loiyangalani, will be undertaken by the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project and the foundation stone was laid last month by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The wind farm site covers 40,000 acres while the project comprises of 365 wind turbines each with a capacity of 850 kilowatts.

This mega project is expected to feed into the national grid an additional 310 megawatts and it is one of the flagship projects under the country’s Vision 2030. The MP said courtesy of LTWP, a 204km road in Laisamis constituency will be revamped.

“The project is Africa’s largest wind farm and the single biggest investment by a private investor in the country,” he said.

The county has various other attractions and the Marsabit Integrated Development Project identifies these as potential wind power sites at Bubisa and Maikona, salt extraction potential in the entire North Horr and fishing in Lake Turkana.

“About 75 per cent of Lake Turkana waters fall in Marsabit County and there is plenty of Tilapia and Nile perch fish that remains unexploited. We require investors in the fishing sub-sector,” he said.