Isiolo County
Crossroads town promised resort city transformation—Sh15 billion vision awaits as LAPSSET restructures. By 2026: construction begins or speculation bubble persists.
Isiolo exists because the crossroads exist—this semi-arid county sits where northern Kenya's pastoral lands meet the central highlands, where the Meru, Somali, Borana, Turkana, and Samburu communities converge, and where LAPSSET's ambitious corridor was supposed to transform a dusty town into a modern hub.
For decades, Isiolo functioned as an administrative outpost: the last town with reliable services before the vast northern frontier. The colonial-era airport, originally built to serve northeastern administration, became the foundation for grander visions. Kenya's Vision 2030 designated Isiolo for transformation into a "resort city"—a Sh15 billion development featuring casinos, luxury hotels, an international airport, and tourism infrastructure serving nearby national parks: Mount Kenya, Samburu, Meru, Shaba, Buffalo Springs.
The vision remains largely vision. The 2,600-hectare site at Kula Mawe, 70 km from town, has been identified but construction hasn't begun. The highways connecting Isiolo to Lamu, Garissa, and Turkana—critical for LAPSSET—remain incomplete. The government's 2025 decision to dissolve LAPSSET Authority and absorb its functions into ministries signals restructuring, not abandonment, but also not acceleration.
The county exhibits classic boomtown dynamics in suspended animation: population projections surge anticipating investment that hasn't arrived, land values spike on speculation, and communities prepare for transformation that keeps receding. By 2026, Isiolo tests whether Vision 2030's resort city materializes—or whether the county remains defined by what it might become rather than what it is.