Five major towns are set to be named cities after Cabinet approved an amendment Bill, which seeks to harmonize and cater for the classification of urban centres in the country.
On Thursday, a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta approved the Urban Areas and Cities Amendment Bill, which will amend the Principle Act of 2011.
If Parliament approves the amendments, they will give way for elevation of the five towns, including Nakuru, Eldoret, Narok and either Bungoma or Kakamega to city categories.
For elevation to the city status, a town must have a resident population of at least 500,000 as per the 2009 population census, besides meeting other criteria.
In the current law, only Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu qualify as cities, two other urban centres as municipalities, while 130 qualify as townships.
Under the proposed amendments, there will be 64 municipalities, 66 townships and 80 market centres in addition to the five new cities.
“The Bill is aimed at amending the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011 to harmonize and cater for the classification of urban centres in the country in a more realistic and viable manner than is provided for in the current law,” State House said on Thursday.
Cities and municipalities will be managed by boards that will have “agency relationship” with respective county governments, while towns will be managed by committees.
The Cabinet also approved the National Irrigation Policy and Irrigation Bill .The policy gives details of mechanisms through which the national government and the county governments will work together for the development of irrigation in the country.
It proposes the establishment of the National Irrigation Development Authority, which will be responsible for implementation of national irrigation schemes, strategic irrigation schemes, trans-boundary and trans-county schemes.
The policy proposes the establishment of both administrative and legal mechanisms for water harvesting, flood control and water storage infrastructure. It further proposes the establishment of a regulatory unit within the State Department of Agriculture.
The Cabinet at the same time okayed the Kenya Coast Guard Service Bill , which seeks to establish a specialised law-enforcement agency to deal with maritime issues.
The role is currently under the Navy, which is not legally and operationally equipped for law enforcement, particularly in territorial and international waters.