The World Bank's approval in July of $50 million for the Kenyan government to boost its management and distribution of natural resource revenues, with an eye on long-term sustainable growth, has further boosted confidence in long-term sustainable growth.
In the meantime, political stability has also been given a slight reprieve with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indefinite adjournment of the trial against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta due to lack of evidence that he organized post-election ethnic violence in 2007.
But the security situation with the regrouping of the Somalia-based al-Shabaab militant group and an uptick of the group's apparent attacks on Kenya continue to be problematic, even more so because no one seems to be sure whether the threat is emanating entirely from al-Shabaab.
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While this remains a clear threat, it has not affected exploration and development-and it certainly has done little to scare foreign investors from this hydrocarbon frenzy that is expected to continue over the next five years, further boosted by relatively cheap exploration licenses.
In this race, Kenya is the top contender, moving forward at double the speed of neighboring Uganda which discovered oil in 2006, six years before Kenya, but will lag a year behind the newcomer in terms of commercial production.
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