NAIROBI, September 1 – Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) is working to ensure full utilisation of its indoor facilities.
Managing Director Philip Kisia Monday told Capital News that the facilities remained underused while outdoor services and tenancy are fully utilised.
“Tenancy is on high demand that soon we will start vetting our clients to raise profile of the facilities,” he said.
Kisia noted that car parking was also fully occupied.
In efforts to make the centre fully operational, Kisia said the management was embarking on an aggressive marketing plan to publicise its services internationally and make KICC a 24-hour-centre.
He said they aim to ensure the Centre hosts at least one major international conference every month.
Besides marketing, Kisia said they intend to revive the revolving hotel which is at the top floor of the building with the hope that it will become fully operational in the next eight months.
“We are currently looking for an investor who can make the revolving hotel operational, someone who has experience to make it a world class facility that can compete with other international hotels,” he said.
Other long term measures include the revamping of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s monument to include a mini park displaying the architect work of the KICC building.
Kisia also revealed that the centre was waiting for approval from the government to start constructing an underground convention centre, a project he said was likely to take about 4 years to be completed.
“The convention centre will have an underground tunnel connecting shopping malls to the centre, exhibitions, new conference rooms, art galleries, a delicacy hotel with about 300 rooms and an underground parking,” he said.
The Managing Director said KICC collects Sh400 million in revenue and contributes Sh12 billion to the Gross Domestic Product every year.
He said through its conferences and events, other businesses such as hotels, airlines, taxis and others retailers benefit immensely from the presence of people at the centre.
The indoor capacity of KICC is about 6,500 people while the outdoor can hold about 13,000 people at any given time.
KICC was officially opened by President Jomo Kenyatta in 1974. It’s the second tallest building in the country with 32 floors after Times Towers which has 34 floors.
The facility is also the largest in East and Central Africa competing with Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa -the only African countries that have similar conference centres.
