Nairobi City County is one of the 47

counties of Kenya The Counties of Kenya ( sw, Kaunti za Kenya) are geographical units envisioned by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as the new units of devolved government that replaced the previous provincial system. The establishment and executive powers of ...

. With a population of 4,397,073 in the 2019 census, it is the third smallest yet the most populous of the counties, also serving as the capital of Kenya. In 2013, the county entity was effected, replacing Nairobi City Council, the long-standing unit of administration since pre-independence. The city county consists of eleven gazetted sub-counties and eighty five electoral wards. On the national level, Nairobi also sends seventeen Members of Parliament across the constituencies and one County Woman Representative to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

; one senator to the Senate. The county government, which is allocated devolved functions as per the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, is headed by the county governor, who appoints his cabinet. The county's

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

is headed by the County Speaker, who presides over the County Assembly:

single-member A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

elected Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) represent their respective electoral wards. Additional MCAs are also nominated by

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

as a form of affirmative action. Nairobi City County shares the same boundaries as the then Nairobi Province; Kenya's eight

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

were sub-divided into forty seven

Counties of Kenya The Counties of Kenya ( sw, Kaunti za Kenya) are geographical units envisioned by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as the new units of devolved government that replaced the previous provincial system. The establishment and executive powers of ...

as per the Constitution of Kenya, based on the forty seven districts that were established prior to 1992. On 25 August 2022 after the general elections in Kenya,

Johnson Sakaja His Excellency Honorable Johnson Arthur Sakaja, CBS (born 2 February 1985) is a Kenyan politician serving as the governor of Nairobi City County since 25th August 2022. Previously, he served as the Senator of Nairobi from 2017 to 2022, and as ...

was sworn-in as the fourth Governor of Nairobi County.

Demographics

Based on the population census conducted by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2019, determined the resident population of Nairobi City County was 4,397,073 within the

city proper A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term ''proper'' is not exclusive to cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as "the sin ...

, the highest of the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. A breakdown of the population showed that there were 2,192,452 males, 2,204,376 females and 245 intersex individuals. Embakasi Sub-county had the highest population of 988,808, accounting for more than 22% of the total population of the county;

Kasarani Kasarani is a commercial and residential neighbourhood in Nairobi. Kasarani is also used in reference to the city's sub-county with the same name, which spans through neighbourhoods in the northeastern areas of Nairobi. Located within the larg ...

came in second with 780,656. Kibra Sub-county with an area of , had the least population among the sub-counties but had a high population density of 15,311/km². The population density was highest in the sub-county of Mathare with 68,942/km² followed by a distant second by Kamukunji with 25,455/km², then

Makadara Makadara is a residential neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. It is approximately southeast of the central business district of Nairobi. Location Makadara is located approximately southeast of Nairobi's central business district. It is s ...

with 16150/km², Kibra and

Dagoretti Dagoretti is an area in the western part of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It straddles the Nairobi and Kiambu County boundary with the Dagoretti Road Reserve marking the psychological border point heading Northerly and North-Easterly. Administrativ ...

with 15,311/km², and 14,908/km² respectively.

Lang'ata Lang'ata is a predominantly middle-class residential suburb of Nairobi in Kenya. The suburb consists of many smaller housing developments, referred to as estates. They include Nairobi Dam, Otiende, Southlands, Ngei, Jambo estate, Onyonka, Mada ...

had the lowest population density with 911/km², with the highest household size of 3.1. As a whole, Nairobi City had the highest number of households in the country with 1,506,888, with an average household size of 2.9, as well as the highest population density of 6247/km² against the county's total area of .

Administrative and electoral boundaries

Nairobi is divided into 17 electoral constituencies, 85 wards, and 11 sub-counties.

Leadership

References

Notes

External links