In 2013, as part of Kenya’s industrial modernisation drive, the country pitched the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), a technology research centre, as a ‘cutting-edge innovation’ campus that will lure experts who will contribute to the country’s innovation.
Fitted with research laboratories and testing facilities, KIRDI was supposed to be the crown jewel of the Silicon Savannah. Nine years later, it was abandoned.
Why it stalled: The KIRDI project faced multiple challenges as it rotted in development hell; there was a lack of adequate funding, which caused disputes between contractors and developers. Contractors eventually abandoned the site in 2022, with costs stacking up. It became too expensive to build, leading the KIRDI project to fizzle out of Kenya’s priorities.
Now, Kenya wants to take the project up again.
What changed? There’s new money, a new contract, and a new timeline. While Kenya originally projected the project to cost up to KES 5.9 billion ($45.4 million), targeting a 2022 completion, that timeline is no longer feasible. With costs creeping in, the country has added a financial buffer, planning to spend an additional KES 3.4 billion ($26.1 million) to finalise KIRDI by 2028.
The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), the agency developing KIRDI, has awarded the main construction tender to Kingsley Construction Company for KES 2.66 billion ($20.4 million).
Africa’s project-execution fatigue: Across the continent, big-ticket innovation and infrastructure projects often struggle to move from announcement to delivery.
Another Kenyan metro project, Konza Technopolis, a technology city being built near Nairobi, has made progress, but far slower than promised. Ghana’s Saglemi Housing Project, announced in 2012 to deliver 5,000 affordable housing units, stalled after partial completion due to misappropriation of funds.
The pattern is hard to ignore. The real test for Kenya’s tech hub is whether the fresh capital can break the cycle and actually get finished.