Urbanisation in Kenya has a long history with urban
agglomeration in the form of trading centres being found
along the Kenyan coast as early as the 9th Century AD
(Obudho 1988: 3) . However, the growth of many urban
centres can be traced to the pre-independence period
when they were used as centres of administrative and
political control by the colonial authorities (UNCHS
1985). Table 1.0 shows that the process of urbanisation
in Kenya, which had been rapid in the 1979-1989
period, seems to be declining. The proportion of
Kenyans living in urban centres1 increased from 5.1 per
cent in 1948 to 15.1 per cent in 1979, to 18.0 per cent
in 1989 and 34.8 per cent in 2000. There are currently
194 urban centres, with 45 per cent of the urban population
residing in Nairobi (GOK 1996:35; GOK 1989:74;
GOK 2001).
The growth of the urban population, which has
resulted from both natural population growth and ruralurban
migration, has led to an increased demand for
resources required to meet the consequent demand for
infrastructure services (Olima 2001). Statistical analysis
shows that the rank size distribution of the urban places
that comprise this urban population is and will be well
distributed, corresponding to what regional geographers
would consider as balanced (GOK 1993:7)