World Bank sets tough governance conditions on Sh28b grant

Counties will not get access to the Sh28 billion set aside by the World Bank if they do not establish city and municipal boards.

The bank has approved the funds, under its Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP), as development aid to support 45 counties, except Nairobi and Mombasa which were left out because they are more developed.

KUSP Project Coordinator Victor Ogutu said counties that failed to meet the World Bank project designs would not get access to the Urban Development Grant (UDG).

“We have approved this money to release for 59 towns in 45 counties, but we will only give them the cash once they satisfy KUSP criteria,” he said in an interview with The Standard.

KUSP aims to strengthen urban institutions and help create systems to deliver improved infrastructure and services in the selected towns and municipalities.

Among the conditions for the UDG grant is that the county governments must draw up a county urban institutional development strategy.

Mr Ogutu said the counties must also have running institutional frameworks and service delivery systems.

Some of the counties have met the conditions, with Ogutu saying the list of those that have complied would be released soon.

Kuria East MP Marwa Maisori said he wondered why his constituency in Migori County had missed out on the KUSP programme.

In Migori, three towns were picked - Awendo, Rongo and Migori. Awendo will get Sh219 million for the next five years, Rongo Sh165 million, while Migori will get Sh133 million, but they will have to comply with the World Bank framework of operation.

Ogutu said the 2009 census had been used as the baseline to select areas with a population of over 70,000 to benefit from the bank’s conditional grant.

“This is the reason some towns such as Kajiado or Ongata Rongai that meet the threshold could have missed out,” he said.

With Kenya being among the most rapidly urbanising nations in Africa, the urban development programme is expected to give the selected towns a much-needed facelift.

Kisumu County Secretary Olango Onudi said the UDG would give a boost to services in the areas.

The Local Government Act had a four-unit structure for the urban areas - city, municipality, county and township.

The current legislation, the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011, establishes boards and committees to manage urban areas, as opposed to local governments in the previous system of government.

“The boards and committees will be constituted by the county government and mandated to govern the running of the urban areas,” said Mr Onudi.

He asked the county assembly to fast-track a Bill seeking to create city and municipal boards in the seven towns included in the programme to enable them to get access to their approved UDG of Sh780 million.

Although Kisumu has set up the city board, the Bill is still pending in the assembly to make formal regulations that guide the operations of the city and municipal boards.

“We are asking the members of the assembly to look at what is lying in wait and pass the Bill so that Kisumu can access the World Bank-KUSP grants,” said Onudi.