Nairobi City County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya. With an estimated population of 5,454,000 in 2024, it is the third-smallest in area of the counties, yet the most populous. It also serves as the capital of Kenya. The county entity was effected in 2013, replacing Nairobi City Council, which had been the long-standing unit of local administration since before Kenya's 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, one County Woman Representative to the National Assembly; and one senator to the Senate. The county government, which is allotted devolved functions as stated in the Constitution of Kenya, is headed by a county governor, who appoints his/her cabinet. The county's legislature is headed by the County Speaker, who presides over the County Assembly. The Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) are elected from single-member districts and represent their respective electoral wards. Additional MCAs are also nominated by political parties as a form of affirmative action.
Nairobi City County shares the same boundaries as the former Nairobi Province. Kenya's eight provinces were sub-divided into forty-seven counties as stated in the constitution, based on the forty-seven districts that were established prior to 1992.
On 25 August 2022, after the general elections in Kenya, Johnson Sakaja was sworn-in as the fourth Governor of Nairobi County.[4]
Demographics
Based on the population census conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2019, the resident population of Nairobi City County was 4,397,073 within the city proper, the greatest population of any of the counties of Kenya.[5] A breakdown of the population showed that there were 2,192,452 males, 2,204,376 females and 245 intersex individuals.[5]Embakasi Sub-county had the highest population of 988,808, accounting for more than 22% of the total population of the county; Kasarani came in second with 780,656. Kibra Sub-county with an area of 12.1 km2 (4.7 sq mi), had the least population among the sub-counties but had a high population density of 15,311/km2.[6][5] The population density was highest in the sub-county of Mathare with 68,942/km2, followed in a distant second by Kamukunji with 25,455/km2, then Makadara with 16,150/km2, Kibra and Dagoretti with 15,311/km2, and 14,908/km2 respectively.[5]Lang'ata had the lowest population density with 911/km2, with the highest household size of 3.1.[5]
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 703.9 km2 (271.8 sq mi).[5]
