Counties of Kenya

Kenyan Counties Kaunti za Kenya (Swahili)
Category	Semi-Devolved State
Location	Republic of Kenya
Number	47 Counties
Populations	101,539 (Lamu) – 3,138,369 (Nairobi)
Areas	294.7 km2 (113.8 sq mi) (Mombasa) – 71,597.8 km2 (27,644.1 sq mi) (Turkana)
Government	County Government, Government of Kenya
Subdivisions	Sub-Counties

Kenya
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The counties of Kenya are geographical units envisioned by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as the units of devolved government.^[1] The powers are provided in Articles 191 and 192, and in the fourth schedule of the Constitution of Kenya and the County Governments Act of 2012. The counties are also single member constituencies for the election of members of parliament to the Senate of Kenya^[2] and special women members of parliament to the National Assembly of Kenya.^[3] As of 2013 general elections, there are 47 counties whose size and boundaries are based on the 47 legally recognised Districts of Kenya. Following the re-organisation of Kenya's national administration, counties were integrated into a new national administration with the national government posting county commissioners to represent it at the counties.^[4]

Establishment

County governments were established in 47 counties (largely based on the 1992 Districts of Kenya), after the scheduled general elections in March 2013. The counties' names are set out in the First Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya.

List of counties

Under the new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 counties for administrative purposes. They are grouped below according to the former province of which they were part, with their areas and populations as of the 2009 census:^[5]

County governments

County governments are responsible for county legislation (outlined in article 185 of the Constitution of Kenya), executive functions (outlined in article 183), functions outlined in the fourth schedule of the constitution of Kenya, functions transferred from the national government through article 187 of the constitution of Kenya, functions agreed upon with other counties under article 189(2) of the constitution of Kenya, and establishment and staffing of a public service (under article 235 of the Constitution of Kenya).^[6] The functions of governments assigned to counties by the fourth schedule of the Constitution of Kenya are:^[7]

County executive committee

The county governor and the deputy county governor are the chief executive and deputy chief executive of the county, respectively.^[8] The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission shall not conduct a separate election for the deputy governor but shall declare the running mate of the person who is elected county governor to have been elected as the deputy governor.^[9] Each county will be run by an executive committee, consisting of:

• A governor, elected directly by the people
• A deputy, elected as running mate of the successful candidate for governorship
• A number of committee members not exceeding a third (or ten where a county assembly has more than 30 members) of the members of the respective county assembly
• A county secretary, nominated by the governor and approved by the county assembly, who will double up as head of the county public service, and secretary to the county executive committee^[10]

As a speciality in the democratic system Kenyan law requires governors to have a recognised university degree (it is not necessary for the President of the United States, for example, to hold a degree).^[11]

County assemblies

The counties will each have an assembly whose members are elected from single member constituencies known as wards. There may also be a number of nominated members as is necessary to ensure that neither male nor female members constitute more than two-thirds of the assembly.^[12] There will also be six nominated members to represent marginalised groups (persons with disabilities, and the youth) and a speaker who will be an ex officio member of the assembly.^[13][14]

County governors

See also

• Provinces of Kenya
• Kenyan general election, 2013

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Counties of Kenya.

• Top 10 Largest Counties in Kenya
• Kenya county websites
• OpenData Tharaka-Nithi