Kenya Will Soon Have Five Cities, Will your Town Be Among Them?

Kenya will soon have two more capital cities bring the number to five after Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa after the cabinet on Friday approved the elevation a move that will be effected after amendments on the Urban Areas and Cities Act.

If the amendment will be adopted and adopted by parliament, Kenya will have five cities, 64 municipalities, 66 townships and 80 market centers different from the current status where only two towns are classified under municipalities with 130 of them being townships.

The current Urban Areas and Cities Act of 2011 states that for an urban area to be classified as a city, it must have a population of at least 250,000 as per the last census. The Cabinet, however, did not disclose the identity of the two towns set to be uplifted into cities although the largest towns in Kenya after Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu are Kiambu, Nakuru, and Eldoret.

According to the current act, which is set to be amended, states that the capital city shall provide the infrastructure necessary to sustain the following:

The seat of the national government

Offices of diplomatic missions

Efficient transport network connecting to rural areas, towns and other local, regional and international cities

Commerce and industry.

The Act also states that a capital city shall decentralize its functions and the provisions of its services to the extent that it is efficient and practicable to do so.

If therefore, Section 6 of the Act will not be changed, the two towns will have to fulfill the requirements above with concerns being raised about who will fund the projects, whether it is the national government or county governments.