Poll fever: Investors express fears at stability of business
An aerial view of Kisumu City.
Business leaders have expressed fears over the stability and security of their investments ahead of the 2022 General Election.
The concerns emerged during a breakfast meeting organised by the Kisumu County Government at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi on Monday.
This was the last of a series of meetings Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o’s administration has been holding with various categories of investors to drum up support for its Kisumu Vision 2050 economic blueprint.
The firms represented at the event included Jambojet, Hilton Worldwide, Strathmore University, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Equity Bank.
Through detailed PowerPoint presentations, county executives outlined investment opportunities in Kisumu County. A question-and-answer session with the governor capped the event.
Nyeri Deputy Governor Caroline Karugu praised the Kisumu County leadership.
“This is an opportune time to invest in a county that ranks higher than Kenya on credit ratings,” the former Investor Relations and Communications Manager at the Nairobi Securities Exchange told the forum.
The county government outlined sports, manufacturing, housing, tourism and health as some of the key sectors investors could tap into.
“We have an amazing football team in Kisumu and it would be good to invest in the club for purposes of corporate social responsibility as well as to showcase the talent we have out there,” Kisumu County Tourism and Sports Executive Achie Alai said.
Challenged to explain how investors’ interests would be protected during political campaigns and elections, Prof Nyong’o stressed the need for peaceful elections.
“The cycle of having to start, stop and restart with every election should cease,” Prof Nyong’o said, adding, Kisumu was pegging investments on its Vision 2050 as a strategic move to ensure continuity even after a new administration takes over.
“Many of these ideas, promises and policies that political leaders have been using over the years to attract voters emanate from Kenya’s Vision 2030. Leaders just rebrand the campaign to appeal to voters as pioneers and change-makers, but the ideas they are riding on are not new.
“So we hope that by pegging this conference on our Vision 2050, there will be continuity and you as the investors, regardless of the leadership in place, will not be affected,” the governor told the investors.
The county government is reaching out to investors in diverse sectors of the economy as it gears up for the Kisumu Investment Conference, which is scheduled for September 27-29.
