The County Government of Uasin Gishu has revealed plans to elevate at least six townships into fully fledged municipalities.
This follows the anticipation of the Eldoret Municipality getting the city charter.
The Senate Committee on Devolution a few weeks ago tabled a report that recommends Eldoret to be the country’s fifth city.
Senators are expected to debate the report and when approved the President will award the charter to Eldoret.
While the Senate verdict is expected soon, Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii says they have identified six townships that will be elevated to the municipality status once the city status is confirmed.
The six include Burnt Forest and Moi’s Bridge which already have the municipality structures in place.
Others are Turbo, Moiben, Cheptiret and Kesses townships.
“Once they are upgraded, they will be able to finance themselves and the urban development department is already on the ground to ensure facilities required are in place,” Governor Bii told journalists.
“Moi’s Bridge and Burnt Forest have been up and running as well as Turbo but we want to ensure when they are all with the required standards of a municipality,” he added.
Municipality status comes with enhanced services such as better infrastructure, water and sewerage services, solid waste management among others.
However, the municipality status also comes with responsibilities that involves collection of revenue to finance services through parking fees, trade licenses among others.Already physical planning for the townships has been ongoing.
Over Ksh100 million was allocated by the county in the 2023/2024 budget to facilitate the physical planning works for some of the townships set to be municipalities.
