Gilgil and Molo townships in Nakuru County are set to be upgraded to municipal status, Nakuru County Chief Officer (CO) for Lands, Housing and Physical Planning Ms. Judy Leah Gathoni Waihenya has announced.
Speaking to the press in Naivasha Ms. Waihenya said the two townships are set to receive the charters upgrading them to their new status in a week`s time, adding that this will help attract more funding and investments to these towns.
“This will go a long way in improving infrastructure and service delivery to the residents of these two towns,” she said.
If these two towns are elevated, the number of municipalities in Nakuru County will now rise to three. As for now, Naivasha remains the only municipality town in Nakuru after Nakuru town was elevated to city status late last year.
According to the urban areas and Cities Act of 2011, for a township to qualify to be awarded charter for municipal status, it must have a population of at least between 70,000 and 249,000 residents.
It must also have an integrated urban area or city development plan and a demonstrable capacity to generate sufficient revenue to sustain its operations and to effectively and efficiently deliver essential services to its residents as provided in the First Schedule to the Urban Areas and Cities Act.
The township must also have sufficient space for expansion and infrastructural facilities such as street lighting, markets and fire stations, among others.
Even after fulfilling the requirements and involving public participation, a request is then send to the Senate to be discussed and passed before the President grants the town the new status through a charter.
The Chief Officer said the county had also benefitted from the government programme to issue title-deeds to public schools to save their land from illegal grabbers and announced that most public schools now have title deeds for their land.
On the issue of public land in the county, Waihenya said through the services of consultants, the county government had now identified and documented all public land and this will go a long way in helping attract investors to the county, who in the past had to start by looking for land to invest in.
The CO also noted that the County and National Government title-deed issuance programme which was started in 2018 targeted to issue 100, 000 title-deed to Nakuru residents but this has since been surpassed as they have issued 250,000 title deeds and are set to issue 50,000 more in a month.
By Mabel Keya – Shikuku
