2010-03-31
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Most east African corporate leaders considered political instability as the biggest risk to business but said Kenya was still an attractive destination for foreign investors, a poll published on Tuesday showed.

Only 26 percent of 100 chief executives and managing directors across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania said Kenya was not an attractive destination for foreign investment, a drop from a similar survey by pollster Synovate in July.

"The number of traders saying that Kenya is not an attractive investment country dropped significantly from 45 percent to 26 percent between July last year and March this year," said George Waititu, Synovate's managing director.

Kenya's appeal as an investment destination paled in 2008 after violence erupted following a disputed election in east Africa's largest economy. Some 1,500 people were killed and economic growth dropped to 1.7 percent from 7.1 percent in 2007.

Many eastern Africa economies, which rely on the Kenyan port for trade, suffered as a result of the violence.

A total 67 percent of those polled expected the Kenyan economy to perform moderately worse over the next six months.

Kenya is in the process of writing a new constitution, which analysts say is imperative for the nation to avoid a repeat of the post-election violence a couple of years ago.