Citibank, the consumer banking division of financial services multinational Citigroup, says growing insecurity in Kenya has not changed the country’s attractiveness to investors.

“Kenya is a growing economy. And just like any other country that has gone through such phase… there are some challenges … but then, there are ways of going around them which investors use,” local news platform, Daily Nation quoted David Cowan, Citibank’s top economist as saying.

According to him, emerging economies like Kenya face inescapable socio-political challenges, but these challenges have no real effect on investor confidence.

As East Africa’s largest economy and one of the fastest growing economies on the continent, Cowan said Kenya will continue to attract more foreign investors despite increasing insurgency in the country as long as government ensures policies guaranteeing investors that their capital is secure.

Reacting to the 5.8 percent economic growth forecast by the National Treasury, Citibank said it was unlikely, but Kenya’s economy will grow by 5.5 percent in the current year and rise to 6.1 percent in 2015.

Cowan however noted that factors such as insufficient rains and drought can affect the economy by impeding production. Food price inflation was also regarded as one of the factors that can undermine growth.

He also identified infrastructure constraints as another growth-impeding factor.

The economist lauded Kenya’s continued use of the current benchmark figure to measure growth, saying countries like Nigeria that had adjusted their GDP by over 50 per cent, were being “a little unfair to themselves”.