Naivasha, Kenya, 17 June 2015—Kenya’s Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is conducting a series of consultation workshops with all the 47 county governments to validate the draft National Urban Development Policy (NUDP). UN-Habitat is supporting this process as part of its support to the Kenya Municipal Programme.

The Kenya Municipal Programme (KMP) is supported by World Bank and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). This process is being facilitated by the Kenya Municipal Programme (KMP) and taking place in Naivasha, Kenya. The process commenced on the 26th May 2015, with the first 8 counties: Mombasa, Kilifi, Nairobi, Machakos, Embu, Kitui, Garissa and Nakuru, and will be going on until the 16th of June.

By then, it’s expected that all the county governments will have participated in the process. During the workshops, KMP takes the county governments through the process of drafting the NUDP and its contents; section by section. Thereafter, the counties proceed to independent county discussions and later provide feedback (presentation and written submission) on every recommendation made by the draft policy, as well as additional views on how to strengthen the content of the policy.

Before the substantive discussions on the NUDP draft, the participants are taken through background presentations focusing on global urbanization trends and international experiences of National Urban policies, Kenya’s urbanization trends, and the contemporary urban development issues in Kenya. UN Habitat is supporting on the global urbanization trends and international experiences of National Urban policies. A national validation workshop is scheduled for the 26th of June, which will be the culmination of the validation phase- after consolidation of opinions and comments collected from the 47 counties.

This on-going county consultation process is the first for the NUDP, after the enactment of a devolved government system in Kenya that introduced a two-tier system; the national and county governments. The draft NUDP illustrates different responsibilities that National and County governments will play in guiding sustainable urban transition and development in Kenya. On that premise, the coordination and consultation across the two tiers of government and across counties is crucial for the successful formulation and implementation of the NUDP.