Kisii Governor James Ongwae has called for the amendment of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2012.
Ongwae said the move is aimed at facilitating counties across the country to put in place mechanisms of identifying and classifying their urban areas and cities, in a bid to enhance establishment of management boards for the same.
Ongwae appealed to the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) to fast-track the amendment of the Act to ensure a harmonised criteria of classifying urban areas and cities is entrenched in the constitution for easy implementation of the Act.
Speaking on Thursday at Gusii Stadium during the release of the second assessment of implementation of the devolved functions to the county governments by CIC Chairman Charles Nyachae, Ongwae said establishment of Urban Areas and Towns in Kisii County was behind schedule due to lack of clarity on how the county will identify and classify different urban areas and towns within its jurisdiction in line with the law.
"As Kisii County government, we have not put in place management and governance structures for our urban areas and towns, due to the threshold set out in the Urban Areas and Cities Act 2012. The threshold translates to expected high cost of running the governance structure and lack of resources and capacity to carry out assessments and classifications of the urban areas and towns across the county,” said Ongwae.
Ongwae's sentiments were based on Article 184 of the constitution which provides for a national legislation for the governance and management of urban areas and cities, establishing a criteria for classifying areas as urban areas and cities.
The Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2012 (Section four and five) sets out the mechanisms for identifying different categories of urban areas and cities and for their governance.