Debates about defining urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa and Kenya are explained

What is it about?

Kenya is mainly a rural country. It is becoming more urban but it is not easy to know how fast this is happening. For decades the statistical offices have made changes in the ways towns are defined and very large changes have often been made to the boundaries around individual towns. This has meant that the growth rates reported for many towns (except Nairobi) have often shifted in misleading ways between censuses. In addition, parts of the country are densely populated, even though most people in these areas are farming. The French research group recording urban settlements across the world (e-geopolis, with the African data set called Africapolis) now defines the populations of many of these areas as urban leading to a massive upwards shift in their reports of urbanization in the country. These factors create many inconsistent reports about the nature and extent of urbanization in Kenya. This paper explains and interprets these issues to try and give readers an informed position from which to assess urbanization in Kenya, despite the complexities of the data. Interactive online map links are also provided to illustrate how the landscapes defined as urban look. The paper also provides an overview of urban definitional issues across sub-Saharan Africa.

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Why is it important?

Urban data are used by many analysts, economists and policy makers as indicators of economic and social change. The data for many Kenyan towns (except for Nairobi) have for long been questionable, with sudden seemingly inexplicable shifts over decades. It is useful to present and explain what factors affect these shifts so that more informed analyses of Kenya's urbanization can be made.

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