The Senate has finally started considering a push by the Eldoret Municipality to be awarded a charter to be Kenya’s fifth city.
Eldoret has been pushing for the city status for several months now – and it had been anticipated that the charter would be awarded during the recently concluded Devolution Conference – but it was never to be.
Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii Chelilim had just before the conference noted that there was a technical hitch that slowed down the process at the Senate.
But it seems the matter has now been resolved and the Senate has initiated the last phase of the city status conferment process.
As part of the Senate consideration of the Eldoret City status eligibility, the Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations is in Uasin Gishu County for the town inspection.
A program for the senate visit seen by Uasin Gishu News indicates that members of the Committee arrived in Eldoret on Wednesday.
They are scheduled to meet Governor Bii on Thursday morning before meeting the Ad-hoc committee that considered the recommendations of conferment of city status to the Municipality of Eldoret.
The ad-hoc committee gave a green light for the elevation of the city.
Further, senators in the committee will also hold a meeting with the Uasin Gishu County Assembly’s Joint Committee on Lands and Physical Planning and Committee on Housing and Urban Development.
The meeting will be to deliberate on their report.
Tour of key facilities and amenities
Later on Thursday, the Senators will meet the Board of the Municipality of Eldoret.
A tour of the Municipality’s essential facilities and amenities is also scheduled for Thursday.
Some of the facilities listed for the tour include roads and streets, hospitals and health facilities, stadia and other sports facilities as well as rehabilitation and childcare facilities.
Senators will resume a tour of other facilities on Friday among them Financial Hubs, Theatres, Historical monuments and markets, bus stations, sewerage systems, solid waste management systems, libraries and learning institutions.
After the tour of the Eldoret Municipality, the Senate Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations will retrieve and draft a report that will determine whether to confer the town a city status or not.
The report will be subject to final approval by the Senate.
Should Senators approve the city status conferment, the resolution will then be forwarded to the President who will award a charter to make Eldoret the fifth city after Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru.
