Make cities greener, friendlier as populations grow
By Ng'ang'a Mbugua, August 5, 2025How do we make Kenya’s cities greener and friendlier places for all residents and dwellers, and how do we ensure that the systems we put in place and the infrastructure we build are sustainable?
This is an important question now that Kenya has four cities, and Thika municipality has already indicated that it is keen on being inducted into the Hall of Cities.
First, it will be important for policymakers at the county level to have a coordinated approach to infrastructure development so that roads, railways, electricity, cables and others are seamlessly interconnected.
This way, regions adjoining the cities can be better accessed by all, not just motorists, as one way of making the expanding urban areas more liveable.
In other countries, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are factored into the grand design of cities.
For far too long, the infrastructure design in Kenya’s urban centres has been vehicle-centred, but as the urban population expands, this needs to change to accommodate diversity.
Another critical element in the future design of cities revolves around waste management.
With the three Rs having been increased to five – Refuse, Re-use, Recycle, Re-think and Reduce – policymakers will need to embed these new elements in their design thinking.
Urban areas face numerous challenges, particularly in how to remain clean and green, and how to reduce the eyesores that have become second nature, especially in slums and central business districts that have a problem with garbage collection and disposal.
A model like that adopted by Nakuru County can be used as a template that can guide future planning.
The Nakuru county government has created 96 garbage collection zones and privatised them.
Households in each of these zones pay a fixed amount based on size, and the garbage collectors in turn pay the county government to dispose of the waste in designated disposal areas.
The other aspect that will be mandatory for future city administrators revolves around land use.
Unfortunately, homes are taking up agricultural space, meaning that the acreage under good is diminishing by the year.
Returns from real estate have compounded the challenge, obviously because they are way higher than income from agriculture.
The result is that productive land is increasingly being converted into residential areas.
This is clearly evident in places like Kiambu and Murang’a county, where flats have replaced avocados before administrators could say “plant”.
As a result of such developments, some of which are not meticulously planned, many emerging urban areas are facing a challenge with the disposal of wastewater, not to mention the collapse of infrastructure for rainwater harvesting.
It is, therefore, not surprising that many homes – especially in poor neighbourhoods – routinely become flooded even when such areas experience light showers.
A model needs to be enforced for property developers to embrace rainwater harvesting and use technologies so that the challenge of runoff becoming a menace can be addressed sustainably.
Thankfully, there is no shortage of expertise, both in the devolved governments as well as in community-based organisations.
At the advent of devolution, the quality of county workers was degraded, but this has been changing over time, with counties now attracting high-quality managers.
The next step remains marketing their ideas, policies, programmes and development blueprints to the public for buy-in.
The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of The Nairobi Law Monthly and Nairobi Business Monthly