Urban Centers Should Have Greater Attention In Policy Discussions

Urban areas are engines of economic growth and development all over the world as experimented by McKinsey Global Institute, who found out that some 600 large urban areas in the world contribute up to 80% of the GDP. The study also found out that Nairobi contributes 65% of the country’s overall GDP, which means Nairobi should be taken with the weight it deserves. Articles 184 and 200 of the Constitution of Kenya (2010) provides for the enactment of legislation for the governance and management of urban areas, exemplified through the Urban Areas and Cities Act (2011), and as amended in 2019, which requires counties to align urban programmes with the National Urban Development Policy, 2016 to address: effective urban governance, transportation, economy and implementation of urban agenda arrangements.

Urban management issues have been treated with utmost care globally, and that is why counties came up with the Shanghai China declaration in 2010, and the Shanghai manual for guiding sustainable urban development for the 21^st century. Urban areas of this century and beyond cannot be run on outdated ideas because as population increases, more services are required, hence the need for enhanced innovation and efficiency in service delivery, which has been lacking in many urban areas, evidenced by dirty backstreets, inadequate water supply, ageing and poorly maintained houses, unorthodox waste collection and transportation systems, clogged drainage systems, incomplete and poorly done footpaths and pedestrian walkways, which are in most cases poorly lit and dens of crime among other challenges for the urban dweller.

Inadequate delivery of urban services is a problem of bad politics, incompetence in urban governance, mediocrity and overall lack of vision from the persons charged with running urban affairs. The method of nominating and electing urban leaders and officials must be based on merit and skills set an individual possess, we must change rules of engaging such officials, and ensure they are fit for the demands for urban areas in the 21^st century; such people must be able to effectively make our urban areas achieve a myriad of development strategies in line with international obligations. Such obligations include the New Urban Agenda (NUA), which calls for sustainable urbanization – inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements.

Going forward, we need to change the urban politics and management to integrate new ideas for sustainability of our urban areas, alongside knowledge management and effective communication with stakeholders in the urban space. BBI should recommend ways of ensuring effective public participation of urban residents in developing the urban space, alongside sustainable ways for slum upgrading, leveraging private sector participation in financing urban infrastructure needs including effective Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), models for structuring and managing urban areas and means of performance measurement for urban authorities and application of rewards and sanctions’ applicable thereof.