Nyandarua and Laikipia negotiate to jointly manage Nyahururu town

Leaders in Nyandarua and Laikipia counties have started negotiations to have the two units jointly administer Nyahururu town.

Since the onset of devolution, the two counties have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over control of the town, which generates an estimated Sh300 million per month in revenue.

Leaders from the two counties have been claiming that the town is located on their side.

“Location of Nyahururu is now water under the bridge but the leaders of the two counties are negotiating to jointly manage the town,” said Ol Joro Orok MP Michael Muchira.

County's headquarters

The town, although located in Laikipia, has been the headquarters of Nyandarua since independence.

Mr Muchira said Governor Francis Kimemia (Nyandarua) and his Laikipia counterpart Ndiritu Muriithi were negotiating to see if a metropolitan service commission can be formed so that the counties can jointly manage the town.

The lawmaker, who spoke at St Monica Catholic Church in Ol Joro Orok, said such a commission is important since the town is fast growing towards Nyandarua and the MP envisaged that soon Nyahururu and Ol Joro Orok town, which is 15km from the former, will be joined.

Town's management

Governor Muriithi, who has also proposed an inter-governmental relationship agreement between the two counties, said that this will help in the management of the border town.

The county boss noted that recently, his government and that of the neighbouring Nyeri County signed a deal to work together and enable residents living in border towns of the two counties access services with ease, saying he was looking forward for the same to happen with his administration and that of his Nyandarua counterpart Kimemia.

Two constituencies

The county boss insisted that Nyahururu town goes all the way to Mairo Inya township in Ndaragwa constituency and all the way to Suera area in Ol Joro Orok Constituency, where Nyahururu airstrip is located. The two constituencies are in Nyandarua County.

“I am hoping that in the near future, we will go through an agreement with the county government of Nyandarua like we do with the county government of Nyeri so that we can manage the whole area and the town together,” said the governor.

He said that inter-county boundaries have been a key contributor to clashes among government officials.

Most investments in Nyahururu town are also said to have been put up by residents from Nyandarua county. 

Nyahururu belongs to both Nyandarua and Laikipia.

Leaders from Nyandarua County led by Governor Kimemia have been spearheading a spirited fight in an effort to make Nyahururu town one of Nyandarua’s economic hubs, but Governor Muriithi has said that there was a need for leaders from the two counties to sit down and talk.

“Nyahururu belongs to both Nyandarua and Laikipia and we have no fight over it as we are all brothers and sisters. Let us build it into a serious city together,” appealed Mr Muriithi.

A municipality

Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni has suggested that the town be administered as a municipality to benefit the two counties, saying resources meant to develop Nyandarua had been pumped into the town since independence.

Nyandarua lost its grip on Nyahururu town last year, with the relocation of the Nyandarua North Sub-County headquarters to Ndaragwa town, a move that the area MP said had aided in salvaging the township that sits on forest land.

"The government has created more administrative units in Ndaragwa and Shamata townships and, as residents of Ndaragwa, Nyandarua County, we are not going to push to retain the town but benefits from its resources that our people pumped in. This is why i am urging both Nyandarua governor and his Laikipia counterpart to forge the way forward in resolving the dispute," said Mr Kioni.

There is no fight between us and Laikipia.

The MP also blamed the Senate for lack of goodwill in setting up a commission to resolve county boundary disputes. 

Mr Kioni, who is also the parliamentary Constitutional Implementation Committee Chair, said that by now the Senate ought to have put in place a constitutional committee to resolve disputes that have been raging since the promulgation of the current constitution in 2010.

While citing the disputes between the two counties over the ownership of the town, the lawmaker said that there was a need for the two counties to agree on the administration of the town as a result of the commercial interests Nyandarua laid on the town.

"We filed a petition to the Senate citing the dispute but the Senate has never constituted a commission to solve the decade-long dispute. Lack of goodwill by the Senate has stalled the process," said the MP.

The lawmaker added: "The dispute over Nyahururu town is a county boundary and not constituency boundary that we would have handled with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). There is no fight between us and Laikipia, it is a question of how we manage our investments in Nyahururu".