A recent visit to upper hill revealed some news to me that had not hit my mind before. It started as a slow encroachment by a few business offices in a few years ago, but it has now turned into a real scramble for land at Upper Hill. Apparently, everybody now thinks that Upper Hill is the hot biscuit that they must at least have a bite of.
Talk of the big corporate names in Kenya and the chances of finding their headquarters in Upper Hill will be 90%. Big banks in Kenya like Equity Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa and the latest entrant KCB have their head offices here. KCB are however still constructing what might end up as the tallest tower at Upper Hill for the near future before another investor brings in competition.
The unbeatable beverage company Coca-Cola also has their head offices there just next to Shelter Afrique – a property financing company of its own kind in Kenya and Africa at large. A few meters away we have Blue Shield Insurance company offices and the one investment company Old Mutual just to mention a few.
Several government offices also decorate the land at Upper Hill. A good number of government agencies are also to be found in Upper Hill including the Capital Markets Authority, KASNEB among several others.
Stack between Equity bank and CBA we have the World Bank offices. The presence of these international body’s offices in this area does not only portray class, but a sense of security and status. This in effect adds value to the land in the area and its environs making land rates shoot beyond the roof in just a short span of time.
However, Upper Hill faces a challenge of infrastructure even with the high end corporates having installed their offices there. Visiting the area currently you’ll find men at work trying to improve the road network in the area; this will go a long way in making it an up-market hub of economic activities very focal to our country Kenya.
With most of our top corporates shifting their offices to the cool environment of Upper Hill, we can only expect to have a very vibrant business hub in the area in two or three years’ time. Constructions in the area are massive and very aggressive; and soon the old known quite Upper Hill might no longer be there.
Of great importance to note is that, Upper Hill is going to be the heart of Kenya in a short while where all important decisions in corporate Kenya are going to be made. In the meantime, the scramble for upper Hill continues…
Africonometrics 