Wednesday, September 20, 2023 –Eldoret Town is beckoning to join the growing list of Kenyan cities being approved in the new wave of urbanization by the current government.
On Wednesday September 20, the Senate gave a node to the bid aimed at elevating the Uasin Gishu-based Town into a fully-fledged city.
The Senate Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations approved the papers that will see the Town receive an official urbanization charter to become the fifth largest Kenyan city.
It was established that Eldoret had met all the required standards to join the city bracket as outlined in Section 5 and the First Schedule of the Urban Areas and Cities Act of 2011.
Eldoret, a major town in Uasin Gishu County, is being elevated at the time the new president of Kenya Dr. Wiiliam Ruto has taken power now 12 months in office.
Ruto hails from Uasin Gishu County where his family also resides todate.
He will be required to officially endorse it so that to make it the fifth city after Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiusmu, Nakuru(which was elevated in 2021 by Uhuru Kenyatta) and now Eldoret City.
What the Constitution says
The Devolution Committee noted that it had also engaged the Uasin Gishu County leadership, the National Government and Senate leadership headed by Speaker Amason Kingi in reaching at the conclusion.
The Constitution of Kenya also requires that a thorough public participation takes place in such a matter of public interest like boundaries delimitation and elevation of towns into city status.
Any town getting to the city level must have a population of over 250,000 persons. Eldoret boasts of a population of 475, 716 heads.
Any municipality meeting the threshold, according to the Urban Areas and Cities Act, can get a conferment from the president to become a complete city.
In the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011, the President may, on the resolution of the Senate, confer the status of a city on a municipality that meets the set out criteria, by granting it a city status charter in the prescribed form.
