The Council of Governors is pushing for the establishment of a special fund to develop cities and urban areas to improve habitability to cope with growing population and curb spread of slums.
This is even as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development warned of proliferation of informal settlements in major towns due to neglect and under-investments in the urban areas.
This comes even as Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja revealed plans to boroughs system to decentralise services in the capital.
In the systems, the county plans to divide the city into five sections; Nairobi North, South, East, West and Central.
The regions will be managed by boards and properly financed to improve service provision.
“Given the unique nature of Nairobi city, the boroughs will be administered by borough managers who will be responsible for day-to-day rolling out of the activities,” Sakaja said.
PS Charles Hinga and CoG’s Housing and Urban Development Committee chairman Anyang’ Nyongó have lamented that the urban areas across the 47 counties have been neglected despite being the centres for revenue generation.
“Our urbanisation rate is at 4.4 per cent annually. About 500,000 people troop to urban areas every year but there is no strategy at all to improve these areas,” Hinga said.
Currently, there are about 1,411 informal settlements in urban areas across the 47 devolved units. Most of them are in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
“If you think about the county's own source revenue, what comes to your mind is urban areas, but ask our governors how much they are investing in these areas. Schedule four of the constitution omitted the urban agenda,” he said.
The PS spoke when he appeared before the Senate’s Devolution Committee to discuss the governments and county strategies to improve municipalities and cities.
The nine-member panel is chaired by Wajir Senator Mohamed Abass.
Nyongó, on behalf of the governor’s lobby, proposed establishment of a national urban development fund to improve the status of the cities and towns.
He argued that most urban areas are getting raw deal in funds allocation despite being the bread basket of the devolved units.
“There exists a huge financing gap for urban infrastructure and service provision. The council deliberated on this matter and approved a resolution to engage with the National government and Parliament to explore the creation of a National Development Fund,” Nyongó told the committee.
“This fund should be at the least Sh20 billion of annual printed estimates to support the urbanisation and urban development from the exchequer,” Nyongó added.
In the last five years, the counties, except Nairobi and Mombasa, have allocated Sh72.97 billion in urban areas, an amount the stakeholders say is a drop in the ocean given the revenue they generate every year.
The CoG is also pushing for the amendment to the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011, to change the composition of the municipal board and strengthen them to improve the status of the urban areas.
They want the chair of the boards picked by the governor with members appointed by Urban Development CEC.
The board members, Nyong’so said, should not be subjected to approval by the MCAs to delink from politicians who often push for appointment of unqualified people.
