Shaping Regional Competitiveness

How planning can position Kenya’s regions for long-term prosperity

Competitiveness isn’t a new industrial park or a flashy ribbon-cutting. It’s the compounding effect of five things that planning can control: connected corridors, serviced land, reliable utilities, predictable regulation, and human capital that actually matches the local economy. In Kenya, aligning these across national corridors and county instruments (CIDPs, spatial plans, IUDPs) is the difference between stranded assets and productive regions. Counties and economic blocs that discipline their land markets, de-risk sites, and publish bankable pipelines will win the next decade. The rest will chase investors with subsidies they can’t afford.

Logistics Meets Land Use

Dongo Kundu SEZ and Mombasa Port Interface

1) The competitiveness reality check (Kenya, 2025)

• Devolution created 47 investment front doors—but capital still follows network effects (port–rail–road–power–skills). Counties that plan together along value chains beat counties planning alone.

• Land is plentiful; serviced land is scarce. Investors don’t want “free land”; they want bankable sites with titles, wayleaves, drainage, power headroom, and a reliable permitting path.

• “Any investor welcome” is not a strategy. Regions must choose which value chains they’ll lead, then design sites, skills, and logistics to fit those uses.

• Climate risk has become cost of capital. Floods, heat, and water stress now show up as insurance premia, debt covenants, and O&M overruns. If climate resilience isn’t in the plan, it’s already in the pricing.

  
  

2) The governance stack that actually matters

Plan and permit like a system, not a silo. The core Kenyan instruments you must align:

• National level:

  • Constitution of Kenya (2010) (devolution, equitable development)

  • Kenya Vision 2030 & current Medium-Term Plan (2023–2027)

  • National Spatial Plan (2015–2045); National Urban Development Policy (2016)

  • National Land Use Policy (Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2017)

  • Public Finance Management Act (2012) (capex discipline, county borrowing)

  • Public Private Partnerships Act (2021) + Regulations (2022)

  • Special Economic Zones Act (2015); Export Processing Zones Act (1990)

  • Climate Change Act (2016, amended 2023); EMCA (1999, amended 2015)

• County/municipal level:

  • County Governments Act (2012); County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs)

  • Physical and Land Use Planning Act (2019): County Spatial Plans, Local Physical & Land Use Plans, zoning, development control

  • Urban Areas and Cities Act (2011, as amended): Municipal charters, Integrated Urban Development Plans (IUDPs), boards and SLAs

  • Community Land Act (2016) (critical for frontier/aviation/renewables siting)

    
    

Rule of thumb: if your concept can’t be traced cleanly through this stack—from corridor to zone to plot to permit—it won’t survive procurement, due diligence, or financing.

3) Where regional competitiveness really comes from

1. Corridors that move goods and peopleSGR + Northern Corridor/A8/A104, LAPSSET spines, airport cargo, BRT/BRT-adjacent labor sheds. Productivity is path-dependent on these links.

2. Serviced, titled, de-risked landLand banking + trunk infra + wayleave clarity + drainage + utilities headroom + clear land value capture tools.

3. Predictable, time-bound approvalsPublished zoning, digitized development control, EIA/ESIA pathways with service-level agreements.

4. Skills that match the chosen clustersTVETs and universities co-locating with SEZs/industrial parks; work-integrated learning aligned to firm pipelines.

5. Climate-resilient urban form and utilitiesFlood-aware siting, water security, energy reliability, circular waste systems; unlocks concessional and climate capital.

   
   

4) The planning levers (what to actually do)

• Choose your two bets per region. Clusters are earned, not declared. Examples: cold-chain horticulture; dairy + biogas; blue-economy logistics; building materials + modular housing; data centers + creative tech.

• Zone for uses, not hopes. Under PLUPA (2019), adopt land-use classes and overlays that reflect actual market signals (e.g., logistics in SGR nodes, mid-rise mixed use along BRT, agro-processing at farm-gate towns).

• Serviced-land programs, not “free plots.” Structure site-and-service PPPs: public provides right-of-way, drainage, last-mile power/water; private funds superstructure. Use development charges and betterment levies to recycle value.

• One permitting map, one clock. Publish a county “critical path” with steps, fees, responsible officers, and statutory days (UACA + PLUPA + EMCA + PPP Act). Enforce SLAs across agencies.

• Inter-county compacts on corridors. Economic blocs (LREB, NOREB, FCDC, JKP, Mt. Kenya) should adopt shared standards for logistics parks, axle-loads, market sheds, and data exchange.

• Institutionalize bankability. Every flagship must have a site pack: cadastral map, tenure status, servitudes, infra headroom letters, E&S screening memo, zoning confirmation, and draft PPP/procurement route.

  
  

5) Provocations (hard truths we should say out loud)

• Stop subsidizing power and water line extensions to nowhere. Subsidize readiness (servitudes, drainage, compact form) and price network access correctly.

• “Any investor” is how you fill backstreets with non-tradables. Export-facing and logistics-dependent uses deserve your scarce right-of-way, not sprawling showrooms.

• County vanity airports and conference centers rarely pass a 10-year NPV test. Fix road freight reliability and cold-chain first.

• Skyscraper envy is fiscal malpractice. Mid-rise, transit-proximate density wins on O&M, safety, and tax base per kilometer of pipe.

• Land giveaways erode governance. If you can’t price land, you won’t maintain roads. Use leaseholds, performance-based land disposition, and step-in rights.

  
  

6) Region-specific plays (illustrative, not exhaustive)

• Nairobi Metro (Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado):

  • BRT/SRT-anchored mid-rise corridors; digitized development control; TOD value capture.

  • Finance/tech back-office + creative industries; data-center-ready sites with guaranteed power quality.

• Coast (Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Lamu):

  • Dongo Kundu/SEZ + port-centric logistics; blue-economy processing; ship repair.

  • LAPSSET/Lamu logistics + conservation-compatible tourism circuits.

• Lake Region (Kisumu and LREB counties):

  • Inland port logistics + fish processing; sugar/ethanol cogeneration; health & education hubs.

  • Kisumu BRT-lite and market city upgrades for last-mile trade formalization.

• North Rift (Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Nandi):

  • Grain/dairy logistics with rail spurs; agro-machinery assembly; sports medicine and altitude training economy.

• Mt. Kenya & Aberdares bloc:

  • High-value horticulture + cold-chain; wood products with sustainable forestry; nature-positive tourism.

• Northern Frontier (Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera):

  • Renewable energy sites (wind/solar), climate-resilient livestock value chains, dry ports on LAPSSET; community land compacts for equitable benefit-sharing.

    
    

7) Getting the financing right

• Pick the right delivery model:

  • User-pay (logistics parks, renewable IPPs), availability-pay (bulk water, street-lighting), or hybrid (waste-to-energy, markets). Under the PPP Act (2021), pre-screen for revenue realism.

• Use land value capture (LVC) tools you already have:

  • Development charges, negotiated exactions, betterment, special rating zones. Tie these to corridor upgrades and BRT nodes.

• Blend climate and concessional capital:

  • Climate Change Act (2016, amended 2023) enables carbon projects and resilience plans; structure results-based finance for leak reduction, non-revenue water, and flood-risk mitigation.

• County borrowing under PFM (2012):

  • Possible but only with strong OSR, clean audits, and CMA-approved issuances. Start with revenue-backed instruments (parking, markets, property rates) and transparent escrow arrangements.

• Viability gap funding & guarantees:

  • Work with National Treasury PPP Directorate, IDAs, and DFIs; publish project data rooms to accelerate diligence.

    
    

8) The pipeline method (from idea to investable)

1. Define the cluster use-case (export-facing > tradable > non-tradable).

2. Pick the exact site(s): tenure clarity, hazard screening, infra headroom letters.

3. Adopt or amend zoning: publish allowable FAR/height/uses; secure wayleaves/ROW.

4. Publish the permit critical path with statutory days, fees, and responsible officers.

5. Structure the delivery: procurement vs PPP; risk allocation; tariff policy.

6. Assemble the data room: baseline, designs, ESIA scoping, utilities MoUs, draft contracts.

7. Run a transparent market sound: test pricing, volumes, timelines; adjust.

8. Lock KPIs: jobs (formal), export value, OSR uplift, climate/resilience metrics.

   
   

9) KPIs that prove competitiveness (and keep you honest)

• Export value per hectare of zoned industrial/logistics land

• Jobs per MVA and jobs per ML/day of water headroom (resource productivity)

• Time-to-permit (days) and variance (predictability)

• Logistics time/cost to port or railhead (door-to-door, not brochure distances)

• Share of development within 800m of high-capacity transit (compactness)

• Property-rate uplift and LVC collections earmarked to corridor O&M

• Climate risk reduction: households/jobs moved out of floodplains; NRW reduced; heat-island mitigation

  
  

10) Ethics, equity, and political durability

• Community Land Act compliance and benefit-sharing for frontier/renewables projects.

• Resettlement done right (EMCA + IFC-style standards): compensation + livelihood restoration, not displacement by stealth.

• Transparent incentives: publish criteria; sunset clauses; clawbacks.

• Open data where possible: zoning, permits dashboard, and SLA performance to build trust.

• Inclusion as strategy: accessible transit, affordable rentals near jobs, and SME space in logistics parks increase labor participation and political support.

  
  

11) What to stop doing (tomorrow morning)

• Announcing parks without trunk infrastructure or a financing plan.

• Parceling peri-urban land into unserviceable 1/8-acre lots.

• Negotiating investor MoUs before you’ve mapped tenure, hazards, and wayleaves.

• Copy-pasting incentives from other regions without modeling fiscal impact.

• Treating ESIA as a tick-box at the end; it is a design input from day one.

  
  

12) How we help (Lybrae’s edge)

• Planning to permits, seamlessly: We align National Spatial Plan intent with County Spatial Plans, IUDPs, zoning, and development control—then run the approvals path.

• Bankability by design: We package site-and-service programs, LVC instruments, and PPP routes into clear investment notes with data rooms.

• Finance & insurance pathways: Compare lenders, estimate repayments, and de-risk with the right cover from day one.

• Execution network: Registered planners, surveyors, environmental experts, and builders who understand Kenya’s statutes—and how to deliver within them.

  
  

Ready to position your region for the next decade? Start your Planning & Permit Process—let’s turn corridors and sites into competitive clusters. Bila structure, ni struggle.