An incredible 5,000-acre “startup city” in East Africa has its own power grid, and water supply – and has ambitions to become a “small Europe”. Tatu City, in Kenya, is one of many satellite cities growing across the continent, intended to house growing urban populations and establish new economic hubs.
Located 20 km north of Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), the burgeoning development is currently home to some 5,000 people only 10 years after construction began. Almost 90 businesses were already operating in the mixed-use special economic zone (SEZ) as of January, employing 15,000 people.
Among them are CCI Global, which has a 5,000-seat call center, and Chinese medical supply manufacturer Zhende Medical.
Tatu City also has two schools, a corner market, and a grocery store – but its ambitions are far greater, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
The Kenyan Wall Street reported in May 2020 that more than KES 15 billion – £86.6 million – had already been spent on the city up to that point, with another KES 40 billion – currently equivalent to more than £231 million – planned by its American, Norwegian, British and New Zealand investors. The total value of the project would exceed KES 200 billion, or around £1.15 billion, it added.
In a recent feature on the privately-owned development, which collaborates with the Kenyan government, the outlet described guards greeting visitors at the gates to the city with note cards laying out the local rules, including a 25mph speed limit and no littering, describing it as “The Safest City in Africa”. A traffic enforcer told the news website: “We want to have a small Europe here.”
Tatu City is subject to national law, but can set its own rules on things like traffic and the kind of houses that can be built, with projects dependent on approval from the area’s management. As a special economic zone, companies there are eligible for tax benefits as well as other incentives, and its location puts it at an advantage over other startup cities built far from urban centres, AP reports.
Tatu City’s close proximity to the Kenyan capital allows it to plug into its labour markets, and currently most of those who work there don’t live there. One-bedroom flats in Tatu City are reportedly on the market for $45,500 – £34,191 – which remains beyond the means of most Kenyans, but not for some of the country’s emerging middle class.
According to the World Bank, the country had a per capita GDP of $1,961 in 2023. Tatu City has ambitions of one day supporting a population of 250,000, though developers admit scaling up the population could take decades, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
