H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta on 17th May 2022 launched the 9th Edition of Africities Summit held in Kisumu City. The President called for tangible, practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing Africa’s urban areas and noted that the summit provides an effective forum for the continent to take stock, reflect and plan on the best ways of addressing the challenges of urbanization. The President noted that the theme was timely as the summit comes at a critical time when, Africa’s rapid urbanization and the challenges of future cities, are increasingly coming into sharp focus; more so after the shocks of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” the President said.
This year’s Africities summit held under the theme “The role of intermediary cities of Africa in the implementation of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the African Union Agenda 2063” is the first to be hosted in an intermediary city. President Kenyatta in his statement emphasized the need to scale up the role of intermediary cities as the next frontiers of African urbanization and development citing that the 9th Africities summit had the task of providing the continent with a comprehensive and achievable roadmap on how intermediary cities can contribute more towards the implementation of the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the African Union Agenda 2063.
The President informed the summit that in Kenya the National Government has over the last five years been implementing projects and programmes geared towards the improvement of the lives of Kenyans through the achievement of SDGs adding that the Government had also embarked on a slum upgrading programme spread across the country, notably in the capital city of Nairobi and the intermediary cities of Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru.These concerted actions had been taken through the Kenya Devolution Support Programme, the Urban Support Programme, the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme and the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Programme. H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta noted that cities and local authorities around the world played a key role in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, citing that they proved to be an indispensable “ring” in the governance chain and prevention of the pandemic.