Newly inaugurated Murang’a Municipal Board was tasked to work on plans of increasing housing in major urban centres within the county.
Seven members of the Board were sworn in on Tuesday with Governor Mwangi wa Iria directing them to come up with strategies of mitigating house shortage especially in Murang’a town.
The governor told the members to identify land within the town and seek for resources towards putting up new buildings to cater for influx of residents in the town.
“Learning and social amenities in Murang’a town have increased population and currently some workers are forced to seek for accommodation in Thika and other neighbouring towns,” added Wa Iria.
The Board, he noted, will get funding from the National government through the Kenya Urban Centres Support Programme and also from the county government in effort to improve services in the urban centres.
“Another responsibility of the municipality board is to mobilize resources from donors among other shareholders to improve services in our urban centres,” noted the governor.
The establishment of Murang’a University of Technology three years ago led to increase of population thus high demand for housing within Murang’a town.
The members were also challenged to improve the beauty of the town with the governor saying traders who fail to paint their buildings on an annual basis risked having their licenses cancelled.
“The radius of Murang’a Municipality is about 2.5 kilometers but due to increase of population in the town, expand the area to a radius of up to 12 kilometers,” said Wa Iria.
“Few years from now, many residents will have migrated to our major urban centres and this calls for improved services,” he explained.
Water, sewerage and garbage collection are some of the tasks under the municipality board, with some towns within the county lacking sewerage lines.
Residents of Kenol town located along the Nairobi-Nyeri road, complained of lack of proper sewer lines and poor management of garbage.
The governor challenged the members to work on a better plan of garbage collection, adding that delayed collection of garbage has been a big problem.
Meanwhile, the governor has directed members of the board not to engage in conflicts with hawkers and traders but instead come up with a better strategy to contain them.
Currently, traders have moved to sell their wares along major streets in the town, an occurrence which some residents said contributed to congestion.
The municipality has already received Sh60 million from the Kenya Urban Centres Support Programme to kick start its functions.
By Bernard Munyao
