Bill seeks to reduce city requirements

Kenya will cut the population size required for a town to be declared a city from 500 000 to 250 000 residents if proposed changes to an urban law that seek to create more cities is adopted. The Daily Nation reports that the proposal contained in the Urban Areas and Cities (Amendment) Bill, 2017, follows Cabinet approval in September to provide for five cities, up from the current three. Although the Cabinet did not specify the two towns set for elevation to cities, Kenya's largest urban centres behind Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu cities are Nakuru and Eldoret in that order. Besides the city status criteria, the Bill also seeks to cut the required population size for a municipality to 50 000 from 250 000 residents. The proposed law also provides for the creation of 64 municipalities, 66 townships and 80 market centres, according to the report.