Nakuru town view. Photo/courtesy
Nakuru town is one of the five major towns that are set to be elevated to cities ranking after Cabinet approved an amendment Bill, which seeks to harmonize and cater for the classification of urban centres in the country.
Cabinet meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday approved the Urban Areas and Cities Amendment Bill, which will amend the Principle Act of 2011.
If legislators approves the amendments, they will give way for elevation of the five towns, including Nakuru, Eldoret, Narok and either Bungoma or Kakamega to City categories.
Elevation of urban towns to the city status requires a town to have a resident population of at least 500,000 as per the 2009 population census, besides meeting other criteria.
In the current law, only Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu qualify as cities, two other urban centres as municipalities, while 130 qualify as townships.
Under the proposed amendments, there will be 64 municipalities, 66 townships and 80 market centres in addition to the five new cities.
The proposed law is aimed at amending the Urban Areas and Cities Act 2011 to cater for the new classification of urban centres in the Kenya.
Cities and municipalities will be managed by Boards that will have a agency relationship with the respective county governments, while towns will be managed by committees.