The smart city project, Konza Technopolis, is sitting on billions of shillings in idle technology equipment as major infrastructure projects drag on, according to a review by the Auditor General.
- •The audit reveals that 23,000 virtual desktop devices were procured for the National Data Center and smart city operations, but only 1,000 of the 17,508 deployed are in active use, while 5,492 remain in storage.
- •Konza’s idle tech is part of KSh 14.4 billion in work-in-progress assets, raising concerns about value-for-money in a project designed to reinforce Kenya’s digital economy.
- •Moreover, infrastructure worth KSh 2.8 billion for buildings, KSh1.3 billion for access roads, and KSh185 million for water works remains incomplete more than six years after construction began.
The projects’ execution could face further constraints due to fiscal realignments. In the 2025/26 budget, about KSh 3.1 billion has been slated for Konza Technopolis to build data centers and smart city facilities, down from KSh5.2 billion the previous year.
An additional KSh2.3 billion will go to the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kenya-AIST) at the site, unchanged from last year, while the ICT ministry’s total allocation fell to KSh12 billion from KSh16.3 billion.
Cloud services are crucial for Konza technopolis as they drove KSh 151.6 million of the project’s total revenue last year, quadrupling year-on-year. Land lease income fell 17% and other streams plunged 61%. Despite cumulative private and public investment of KSh 83.5 billion and 515 surveyed land parcels, only 33 were leased and nine developed by the end of 2024. This left the project heavily reliant on one source of revenue.
Konza’s idle tech represents significant sunk capital that could have been deployed to accelerate revenue streams such as cloud services, land leasing, and digital infrastructure hosting. As the equipment ages, the risk of technological obsolescence rises, forcing the authority to spend more on replacements or upgrades without having recouped the initial investment, effectively widening the gap between the city’s cumulative investment and its modest KSh 252.4 million annual revenue.
The Konza technopolis authority is also running at less than half its approved staffing, with only 95 employees against 210 authorized positions. The project also has long-outstanding receivables, including a KSh 60 million advance for a water project paid in 2016 and a KSh13 million contractor debt that remain unresolved.
