Developing high-tech parks in a rural, resource-constrained settings: a case study of dedan kimathi stp

In most parts of Africa, Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are still a new concept and not well understood as a means to quickly create national wealth and drive technological change. It's hard to convince policymakers to invest enough money to build the infrastructure needed to attract global technology companies. This is important for quickly making a national impact. At the same time, managers of these important STPs face many risks, including the possibility of not getting returns on their investments due to a lack of suitable investors and appropriate new businesses.

Dedan Kimathi Science and Technology Park (DeST-Park) is the first and only operational National Science and Technology Park in Kenya. The Ministry of Education decided to build it in 2016 as part of Kenya's Vision 2030, which aims to transform the country into a globally competitive, newly industrializing, middle-income country with a high standard of living for all its people by 2030. In 2016, Kenya was still considered one of the least developed countries by the World Bank; thus, this goal was to be actualized in an environment and largely by a bureaucracy with no prior experience in implementing such a concept. None the less, over the past six years, the development of DeST-Park has broken many new grounds. It has overcome financial, regulatory, and legal challenges, survived the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and now hosts one of the only semiconductor manufacturing companies in Africa. The Kenya Government now considers it a strategic investment and is indeed making the necessary investment which will fuel its take-off. How this has been achieved makes it a valuable case study for establishing other STPs and Areas of Innovation in Kenya and across the continent.