Why race to cityhood complicates math for municipality planners

Aerial view of Eldoret town [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

Nakuru, the latest addition to the list of cities in Kenya, leapt ahead of a host of other municipalities that had been widely touted to be seeking elevation.

There is every chance the chasing pack just got more motivated and are lurching down the home straight.

And with the revision of The Urban Areas and Cities Act No. 13 of 2011 almost three years ago, more municipalities now qualify for city status.

Some requirements for the elevation of a municipality into a city, including having a population of at least 500,000, were revised in The Urban Areas and Cities (Amendment) Act, 2019. The population required, in the amended Act, was 250,000.

Other requirements such as the presence of a five-star hotel, an international airport, a national TV station, a national radio station and a consulate were scrapped. More municipalities qualified.

But are our finest municipalities justified for the race to cityhood? Just how many cities can or shall, we eventually have?

While the chairman of the Town and County Planners Association of Kenya Mairura Omwenga says the status of an urban area does not really matter, Nakuru’s story looks like the first of many such stories in Kenya.

Being a town, a municipality or a city does not really matter. The stakes are in political pride and status, he says. “In institutions with effective governance, administration and management systems, it matters little.”

If the county governments worked as effectively as they were meant to, then devolution would give the devolved units’ headquarters the much-needed political, economic and social benefits. They would not need to be cities.

Nelson Bosuben, a civil engineer at Bosko Engineering Consultants, however, says municipalities would want to become cities to partake of the benefits that come with the elevated status.

“Many municipalities will want to be cities as the budgetary allocation from the national government is higher for cities,” he says. “The city status will also attract a lot of investments and jobs, and higher revenues for the administrative units. Also, higher rates will mean more income.”

The amendment of The Urban Areas and Cities Act No 13 of 2011 helped municipalities, he says, that could not possibly reach the threshold for elevation. Granted, the previous requirements were so lofty and few or none among the current municipalities could match them.

In the Gross County Product (GCP) report of 2019, the average contribution per county to gross value added (GVA) over the period 2013-2017 was about 2.1 per cent, with Nairobi taking the lead. The capital city contributed about 21.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the period.  

It was followed by Nakuru (6.1 per cent), Kiambu (5.5 per cent) and Mombasa (4.7 per cent). Kisumu contributed 2.9 per cent. The GVA is an economic productivity metric that measures the contribution of a corporate subsidiary, company, or municipality to an economy.

Nakuru was also rated the first in the greater potential for improved output in agriculture and the fourth in the potential for services.

In a number of economic metrics, Nakuru has been performing well, going shoulder to shoulder with the other three cities, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

Although they lag here and there in some aspects, Eldoret and Kakamega municipalities have been touted as possible contenders for city status in the future. Nyeri has been thrown into the conversation, too. Meru has had its advocates as well.

In the city set up, wages for workers are bound to increase. The local government will earn more from land rates. But there is a problem that is always likely to be experienced after the elevation.

“If you drive a few kilometres out of the city’s (Nakuru) central business district, you are effectively out of the municipality. If these boundaries are adopted as the city boundaries, then it locks out a lot of people from the peri-urban areas from accessing the services that the city authorities will provide,” says Bosuben.

This is, even more, the case as many people who now come to work in the city seek to buy land outside the city, and without the old municipality, where the land is cheap.

Such areas develop into satellite towns. “If you expand the reach of the city so as to serve people in the bigger area, through which you create a metropolitan area, you realise that the amenities you have are stretched,” he says. 

This, he notes, requires good planning.

According to Bosuben, expanding the boundaries is necessary as roping in the satellite towns around the city means that as they develop, they do so in a planned manner. They are able to have amenities: serviced roads, water, power and waste management.

Considering all the hassle, he says it is better and easier to retain municipalities and ensure they offer good services, instead of promoting many of them into cities and causing a strain on facilities.

Further, as more and more municipalities get the prestigious promotion, the budgetary allocations by the government increase - an expense that might not be among the State’s current priorities.

Granted, the allocation to the counties has had its fair share of problems, with endless haggling between the Senate and the National Assembly over the increase of the amounts disbursed.

But the hassle for municipalities to be cities will not be over; cities’ potential for growth, and for generating huge incomes, cannot be overstated.

Thika headquartered Lesedi Developers says that areas such as the outskirts of Thika town, Juja as well as Nakuru will continue to be in high demand since these are fast-growing areas and people need houses.

“We also see an increased uptake of office space in certain cities where white-collar jobs are growing fastest. This for instance is an opportune chance to invest in Nakuru City. Real estate will appreciate at an above-average rate through late 2022 for three reasons–scarcity, utility and demand,” reads a report by the company.

This could be the scenario for municipalities seeking to be cities. If they indeed shun their dream or fail to clinch city status, county headquarters should continue to flourish. The clamour for promotion will be unnecessary. “What is important is for the county governments to make sure that delivery of services is good, taxes or rates or resources are well utilised, and citizens are effectively involved in decision making,” says Omwenga.

Devolution, he says, provides county capitals adequate political and socio-economic impetus to grow and develop. “There is an adequate constitutional and legal framework in place. The challenge, however, is inadequate political will and support policies and plans at both the national and county levels and poor resource and financial allocation,” Omwenga says.

“All the county capitals are supposed to have an adequate budget allocation, city or municipal board, manager and key technical departments and officers - treasurer, town planner, engineer, architect and land surveyor. Unfortunately, this is lacking in many counties, this is lacking.”

“The city and municipal boards should be fully established and left to run the county capital and not micro-managed from the central county executive,” he states. It won’t be a shock, however, to see new names presented for possible elevation into cities.