Politics and policy
Aerial View of Nairobi. The city's ranking was mainly hurt by the poor
state of security, corruption as well as rickety public schools and
hospitals. PHOTO | FILE
By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- ‘Economist’ poll that was released Tuesday report places Nairobi at position 122 in the list of 140 cities.
- The city was ranked position 124 last year, but the Economist Intelligence Unit reckons that bulk of the improved cities were driven mainly by the decline of other capitals whose countries are faced with unrest.
- Nairobi’s ranking was mainly hurt by the poor state of security, corruption as well as rickety public schools and hospitals.
Nairobi has been ranked in the bottom 20 of global
cities that are pleasant to live in, haunted by insecurity, poor
infrastructure and health care, an Economist Intelligence Unit poll
shows.
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The poll, which was released Tuesday, ranks Kenya’s capital at position 122 in the list of 140 cities.
Nairobi was ranked position 124 last year, but the
Economist Intelligence Unit reckons that bulk of the improved cities
were driven mainly by the decline of other capitals whose countries are
faced with unrest.
Kenya’s capital’s ranking was mainly hurt by the
poor state of security, corruption as well as rickety public schools and
hospitals.
Poor roads, unstable electricity and irregular
supply has consigned Nairobi to the tail end of the ranking, which had
14 Africa cities with the Kenya capital ranked sixth in the continent
behind Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cairo.
The rankings offer a sneak preview of a country’s
level of development and are used as a tool when seeking to set shop in
new countries and payment of expatriates.
The EIU’s survey assesses the livability of cities
based on factors, including stability and the quality of health care,
culture, the environment, education and infrastructure.
It is also important because it determines a city’s ability to attract and retain foreign investment, expatriates and tourists.
“Assessing livability has a broad range of uses,
from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a
hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages,” says the
survey.
Nairobi’s low ranking could help multinational
companies justify high salaries and hardship allowances they pay
employees stationed in the Kenyan capital.
But it could also work in the reverse, encouraging transactional companies to overlook Kenya while considering where to invest.
Australia’s Melbourne tops the ranking as the
world’s most pleasant city to live in for the fourth year running while
Vienna (Austria) and Canada’s cities – Vancouver and Toronto – captured
2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.
Bottom was Damascus, capital of war-torn Syria
The study further reveals that 17 per cent of mobile money
agents in Kenya are not profitable compared to 13.5 per cent in Uganda
and Tanzania’s five per cent.
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The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) in July ordered
Safaricom to open its M-Pesa agency network to rivals – meaning the
outlets can now double as service points for other mobile money
services.
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