President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for tangible, practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing Africa’s urban areas.

Speaking in the lakeside city of Kisumu when he officially opened the 9th Edition of Africities, the Head of State noted that the summit provides an effective forum for the continent to take stock, reflect and plan on the best ways of addressing the challenges of urbanisation.

This year’s Africities summit held under the theme “The role of intermediary cities of Africa in the implementation of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the African Union Agenda 2063” is the first to be hosted in an intermediary city.

“This Year’s theme is most apt, as the summit comes at a critical time when, Africa’s rapid urbanisation and the challenges of future cities, are increasingly coming into sharp focus; more so after the shocks of the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Uhuru said.

Intermediary cities

President Kenyatta emphasised the need to scale up the role of intermediary cities as the next frontiers of African urbanisation and development. “I say so because in Africa, an unprecedented rate of urbanisation has propelled intermediary cities to stand at approximately 1,086. 

These intermediary cities are home to approximately 174 million people; representing about 36 per cent of the continent’s total urban population and contributing about 40 per cent of the continent’s GDP,” President Kenyatta said.

Speaking at the panel discussion session of the Africities summit, former Primer Minister Raila Odinga who is also the African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development, underscored the importance of infrastructure in addressing the challenges of urban areas in Africa.

 He said as the AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development, he acts as the catalyst to ensure infrastructure projects identified by the AU are implemented on a timely basis to accelerate the continent’s progress. 

Council of Governors (CoG) set the pace during the summit urging African governments to rethink how they will re-engineer the emerging urban phenomenon.

Scanty resources

Kisii Governor James Ongwae who spoke on behalf of the CoG brought the summit plenary attention on the population explosion threat. “We must wake up to the reality that the exponential population growth will exert a lot of pressure on our scanty resources and begin to plan early,’’ he said.