Budget 2025: Konza Technopolis gets Ksh.3.1 billion for data centre, smart facilities

In the Financial Year 2025/26 budget, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said he allocated the money to Konza in a bid to fast-track development at the technology city. The amount allocated for the data centre was a drop from the Ksh. 5.2 billion allocated in the financial year 2024/25.

The amount allocated to data centres is part of the Ksh. 12 billion share that the Ministry of ICT received in the budget, as read on June 12, 2025. This was a drop from the Ksh. 16.3 billion allocated to ICT infrastructure in the 2024/25 financial year. 

Here, an additional Ksh.2.3 billion will also go to Konza for the Construction of the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kenya- AIST), located at the technopolis. An equal amount was allocated for KAIST construction in the previous financial year. 

Treasury allocated another Ksh 3.7 billion for the Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project, Ksh. 333.2 million for Government Shared Services, Ksh. 382 million for the Digital Superhighway, Ksh. 689 million for the establishment of Digital Hubs, and Ksh. 750 million for Maintenance & Rehabilitation of National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure.

In his first-ever budget, Treasury CS Mbadi also allocated huge sums of money to other ICT projects in other ministries. This is under projects such as the expansion of last-mile fibre-optic connectivity, establishment of digital hubs, digitisation of government services and development of an e-government procurement system.

The budget, having failed to introduce new direct taxes, has also focused on the digitisation of revenue collection services by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

This is through auto-populated VAT Returns, Electronic Rental Income Tax System, and the forecourt electronic Tax Invoice Management System integration in the petroleum sector. KRA also banks on the GAVA Connect platform for efficient access to tax services.

While the Education ministry got the lion's share of the 2025/26 budget (Ksh.702.7 billion), Energy, Infrastructure and ICT followed with a Ksh.535.6 billion allocation. This was an increase from the Ksh. 444.3 billion allocation in financial year 2024/25.