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According to Kenya Roads Board,final road register report 2018 , Trans Nzoia County had a
total of 2778.85 kilometers of road network out of which paved surface is 197.157 KM, gravel surface is 1129.88 KM and earth surface roads is 1451.81 KM. The major classes and some of the roads under the classes in the county include;
The various classes of roads are managed by different entities. The County Government manages class D, E and unclassified rural roads. On the other hand the Kenya National Roads Highway Authority (KENHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KURRA) manage the national trunk roads, urban roads and class C roads respectively.
The County has the old colonial railway line of 23 KM that terminates at Kitale town but is not functional. Additionally the County has one functional airstrip at Kambimiwa which requires expansion and modernization. Currently major infrastructure works are being undertaken to modernize the bus terminus which also includes completion of a Business Centre in Kitale town.
Information Communication Technology
According to the Kenya Population and Housing Census (KPHC 2019), the report indicates that 40.4 percent of the population own mobile phones compared to the national figure of 47.3 percent. The County is fairly covered by the three main mobile service providers namely Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom. On the other hand, the report classifies radio and television as the mostly used mass media in the County with coverage of 57.3 percent and 34.3 percent respectively. Further, 16.9 percent of the county residents have access to the internet and the use of computer is 7.1 percent. The installation of fibre optic cables in Kitale Town has enabled businesses and households mainly in urban areas to be connected to the rest of the world through fast internet.
Energy Access
The main sources of energy in the County according to Kenya Population and Housing Census 2019 are electricity, paraffin, liquid petroleum gas, firewood/charcoal, solar, and biogas. Access to energy however varies between rural and urban areas. Wood fuel and solar are the most preferred source by a majority of the rural households for cooking and lighting while electricity and liquid petroleum gas are most preferred in the urban centres.
Lighting
The main sources of lighting fuel in the County are Electricity and paraffin. According to KPHC 2019, 37.9 percent of the households surveyed use electricity and this can be attributed to the scale up in the rural electrification program. On the other hand, 23.9 percent of the households use solar for lighting while 16 percent of the households use paraffin tin lamp and 9.8 percent use paraffin lantern. Similarly, other sources of lighting fuel used are torch/spotlight solar charged, candle, torch /spotlight dry cell, paraffin pressure lamp, gas lamp, wood and battery car charged at 7.5 percent, 2 percent, 1 percent, 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent respectively. The report further indicates that 0.7 percent of the county households use wood and 0.7 percent use car battery charged as other energy sources for lighting.
Cooking Fuel
According to the KPHC 2019, 69.8 percent of the households interviewed use firewood for cooking, 17.3 percent use charcoal, 8.7 percent use liquid petroleum gas, 3 percent use paraffin, 0.6 percent use electricity,0.4 percent use biogas and 0.2 percent of the households use solar.
The above figures clearly indicate that majority of the residents use non-renewable sources of energy for lighting and cooking fuel. The biggest type of energy used for lighting and heating is wood fuel yet the County intends to increase her forest cover. This is a development challenge that needs to be addressed before it becomes a crisis in the future.
Fire fighting
The County fire unit plays a key strategic function to protect and rescue properties and life against fire. The fire incidence majorly occur in institutions such as schools, public facilities; Hospitals and in residential and commercial properties. The fire station has been strengthen in the past few years through acquisition of two (2) new firefighting engines; employed 34 firefighting personnel and constructed a fire station.
Housing Types
Housing is one of the basic requirements for growth and development of the economy. In Kenya housing is classified in terms of roofing, walling and flooring materials. It can also be classified based on the location either in an urban or a rural setting. According to KPHC 2019, the main materials used for roofing are grass/twigs, makuti / thatch, dung/mud, iron sheets, tin cans, asbestos sheet, concrete/cement, tiles, decra/versatile and nylon/cartons/cardboard. Corrugated iron sheet is the leading roofing material at 94 per cent of the houses while the grass/twigs constitute 2.3 percent, asbestos roofed house at 1 percent, thatched or makuti roof houses constitute 0.1 per cent while tile roofed houses and concrete cement roofed houses both constitute 0.6 percent.
The main types of walling material according to KPHC 2019, include mud /cow dung ,bricks, stone with mud ,covered adobe , iron sheets grass reeds and off cuts. Mud /cow dung accounting for 59.5 percent, brick or block accounting for 18.5 percent, stone with mud accounting for 6.6 percent and iron sheets accounting for 1.4 percent of the dwelling units in the County. Other types of walling material used in the County include grass reeds, covered adobe, timber and others. According to KPHC 2019, the main types of flooring materials used by households in the County include dung accounting for 39.7 percent ,earth /sand that accounts for 20.4percent and concrete cement/terrazzo accounting for 32.2 percent of the dwelling units. Other types of flooring include ceramic/ tiles, wood /timber, parquet/polished wood and others. The usage of the above materials also differs between urban and rural areas. There is need for the government to invest on research for appropriate housing technology to ensure affordability and appropriateness in the construction of dwelling units.
In terms of ownership of dwelling units, 67.7 percent of the households in the County live in their own houses while 32.2 percent live in rented housing units (KPHC 2019). In addition, there are 1145 National Government houses and 1052 County Government houses in the County.
Our Mission is to facilitate transformative development, service delivery and good governance for sustainable socio-economic development and Our Vision is to be an outstanding agro-industrialized County with high quality of life for residents.
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