Nairobi performs dismally in latest expats city rating
RANKING: Expatriates could start snubbing Nairobi due to poor public transport and insecurity, a new survey of foreign workers show.
Poor quality of urban life has dragged Nairobi near the bottom of the most attractive cities for workers of multinational organisations.
Nairobi, which was the only ranked city in Eastern Africa, found itself among the bottom five destinations at position 62nd out of 66 cities in the Expat City Ranking 2020.
Kenya’s capital even ranks last for its public transportation system with 71 per cent rating this factor negatively.
A British expat points out: “The road infrastructure is not good in Nairobi, so getting around can be difficult.”
Nairobi also loses points for personal safety, about 46 percent of survey respondents are dissatisfied with their security in Nairobi.
“Your personal safety is not always guaranteed,” says a Dutch expat. Additionally, close to one in four expats are unhappy with the availability of healthcare in Nairobi compared to 13 percent globally and 45 per cent rate the urban environment negatively.
The report is used by multinational organisations to consider locations for opening for opening new business locations meaning it has a bearing on foreign direct investments.
Nairobi, Johannesburg, Seoul, Rome and Salmiya attracted some of the lowest rankings in a global survey of more than 15,000 people representing 173 nationalities.
Health care
Concerns about health care, safety, work-life balance, and the affordability of housing weighed on their scores in research conducted by InterNations, a Munich-based expat network with around 4 million members.
The survey comes after a fallout between the city’s governor with the national government which led to the formation of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services to restore the city’s poor infrastructure.
The only the foreign workers seem to enjoy most is the warm weather and warmth of its people.
