In the kariobangi blog:
An entrepreneur came up to me and asked “why did the Italians construct tarmac roads in the Korogocho slum and not the Kariobangi industrial cluster? Nobody cares about small industries in this country”. He was referring to a slum upgrading program financed by the Italian Cooperation to improve the roads in the nearby informal settlement of Korogocho, which was not extended to the Kariobangi Light Industries; he was evidently not happy about it.More here
I could not come up with a good answer at that moment, but his question reminded me of an excellent paper by Robert Wade, professor of political economy and development at the London School of Economics, which discusses the role of industrial policy in Asia and how donors completely neglected it in Africa.