NORTH - SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT
CO-OPERATION PROGRAMME
FINLAND (north)-AFRICA (south)
PROFILE FOR MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF RUIRU (MCR),KENYA
Preamble:
Global partnership for development is one of the Millennium Development Goals
developed in the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Municipalities all over Kenya and other developing countries are yet to match up the
global village concept.
Municipal Council of Ruiru (MCR) embraces the concept of cooperation with the
Northern Partner city in Finland to open a window of opportunity for sharing, learning,
and propelling development for the inhabitants of Ruiru while reciprocating similar
benefits to the partner city in Finland. This profile therefore describes the operations of
Municipal Council of Ruiru and provides possible areas for the cooperation with a Local
Authority Partner in Finland
Background of the Municipal Council of Ruiru:
Formation and history:
The Municipal council of Ruiru was established under the act of parliament as provided
by the Local Government Act CAP 265 laws of Kenya. It is mandated to among other
things provide local service delivery, local governance and local development.
Physical Location and size:
Ruiru municipality is located in Kenya’s central province within Thika district. It is the
second most populated urban centre in the jurisdiction of Thika district. It is bordered to
the south west by Nairobi city and to the north-east by Thika town. It lies between
Nairobi city and Thika town and is 21km from Nairobi city centre and 17km from Thika
town.
The land size of Ruiru municipality is 292km sq and has a population of 109,574people
as at 1999 national census residing in the municipality. The population size must have
grown and will be updated this year after the August national census.
Departments:
The council has got 3 departments namely:
i.
The Town Clerks department
ii.
The Municipal Engineer’s department
iii.
The Municipal Treasurer’s department
1
The clerk’s department:
This department provides general council administration and oversees the overall running
of the council. It interprets local government act cap265 to help in administration. It also
initiates and coordinates council projects. It is also charged with the responsibility of
management of personnel matters. The town clerk is the chief executive officer and acts
as the liaison between the officers and the policy makers- the elected councilors.
The treasurer’s department:
The department handles all financial matters of the council e.g. budgetary process,
revenue collection, maintaining books of accounts, interpretation of financial regulations
and preparation of annual abstracts of accounts. The municipal treasurer is the chief
financial advisor of the council
The engineer’s department
The engineer’s department is in charge of general development of the council. It offers
technical advice to the council on development control through approval and inspection
of buildings. It is responsible of all council civil works e.g. roads construction, drainage
system, parks and open spaces.
Number of councilors:
The civic wing is the policy making body in the council. It is composed of 9 members:
i.
6 elected councilors –representing the six wards within the municipality
ii.
2 nominated councilors
iii.
1 government representative
The councilors elect amongst themselves a mayor to head the civic wing, who is assisted
by his\her deputy. They also elect chairmen to various committees.
Number of staff.
The council has a total of 105 workers, working in the 3 three departments. The majority
of the staff members are junior officers in the lower cadre, with only 8 serving as
senior/chief officers.
Services offered.
The following are some of the services that the council offers to its residents.
-Street lighting
-Recreational facilities e.g. stadium, parks
-Garbage collection, provision of litter bins and cleaning of the public places
(markets, streets, bus parks, recreational parks)
- Provision of security
- Approval of building plans
- Provision of basic education
- Provision of health facilities.
- Poverty eradication programs, e.g. supporting community- based organizations
and relief of distress.
- Housing.
2
Special features.
Ruiru Municipal Council is an industrial and agricultural town.
Its nearness to the capital city makes it attractive to investors because the cost of
investing in Ruiru are relatively lower, compared to the same in the city. The cost of
living is also low, which attracts many people to live there; this offers an investment
opportunity since the rapidly growing population provides a large market for businesses.
With the establishment of the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan development, the council
fell within the metropolitan boundaries. This is a growth opportunity to the council since
it will enjoy the benefits attached to it; for instance, the infrastructure is expected to
improve, specifically the roads e.g. with the construction of the Nairobi-Thika
superhighway.
Challenges.
There are a number of challenges that the council faces, which affect its effective service
delivery to its residents. Among them are:
i.
Capacity
The council lacks some capacity in areas like disaster preparedness, which impacts
negatively to the quality of service delivered to its people; for instance, there is no fire
engine. In case of fire emergency, it depends on the neighboring councils.
The sewage system in the Municipality is also a challenge since there are no sewer
lines. This poses a health problem to the residents of Ruiru.
ii.
Staff.
There is inadequate staffing with most of the important skills lacking. The few
workers in the council lack proper training in their areas of work. This hampers their
performance and resultantly, the council is unable to give the expected targets as far
as service delivery is concerned Projects implementation is a major challenge. This
can be attributed to lack of project management skills.
iii.
Resources.
The council faces financial constrain to provide certain services to its rapidly growing
population, e.g. provision of water and sewerage services, education and health care.
Capacity building to its workers is also a major challenge financially since most of
the workers need training.
Areas needing cooperation
Education
Capacity building
Environment
Industrialization e.g. biofuel production
This area will be discussed with the partners once they have been identified
NB: More details available on request
3
Contact information.
The official contacts for the Municipal Council of Ruiru are:
The Town Clerk
P.O Box 170 -00232, Ruiru, Kenya
Tel: 067-54216/54231
Fax: 0202196811
E-mail: townclerkmunicipalcouncilruiru@yahoo.com and
The contact person: Nancy Wangai. Email: wangainw@yahoo.com
4