8.1 Kakamega County

MAP 8.1

Kakamega County

Source: World Bank.

activities, transport, animal welfare, trade and development, county planning and development, preprimary education, village polytechnics, home craft centers and early childhood education, environmental conservation, public works, and local community public participation. the services the county is mandated to provide—per urban areas and Cities acts 2011 and 2019 (uaC 2011, 2019)— include services in solid waste, street lighting, public housing, office and shop rental, hospitals, preschools, vocational schools, a sports stadium, a game park, markets, and constituency university campuses, among others.

Kakamega County has 4,451 kilometers of roads, of which 308 kilometers are tarmacked, the rest being made of gravel or earth. there is an urgent need to increase the length of tarmac road to ease access to markets and mobility of factors of production (oCb 2018). the railway infrastructure remains underutilized; there are two railway stations in Lugari and butere and a total of 35 kilometers of rail line crossing the county. Housing development remains a priority in Kakamega County. of the total 392,000 households, 78.3 percent live in bungalows, and 87 percent of the residents own these dwellings. However, approximately 77 percent of the households do not have improved sanitation, so development of sanitation is important. the county currently generates about 2,400 tons of solid waste per day, 68 percent in Kakamega town. However, the daily collection rate ranges between only 1,100 and 1,500 tons (Kakamega County 2018a). Less than 1 percent of the waste from households is collected by the county government, the rest by private entities and communities. the county still faces the challenge of negligible waste recycling due to a lack of technology and procedures for recycling and energy recovery. Consequently, illegal dumping of solid waste is increasing. approximately 90 percent of the county’s households have access to improved