Sub-Counties of Kenya


Sub-counties are the decentralised units through which county governments of Kenya will provide functions and services. Except for the parts which fall under urban areas, sub-counties will coincide with the constituencies created under article 89 of the Constitution of Kenya. Sub-counties will be headed by a sub-county administrator, appointed by a County Public Service Board.
Under the former Constitution of Kenya, the Provinces of Kenya were subdivided into a number of districts. In line with restructuring the national administration to fit with the devolved government system brought in by the 2010 Constitution, that came into full effect following elections in March 2013, the 8 provinces and their administrators and districts were replaced by County Commissioners at the county level, while former districts existing as of 2013 were re-organised as sub-counties, and had Deputy Commissioners appointed over them.

Historical expansion of district numbers

List of the 46 districts plus the capital of Kenya (since 1992, but prior to 2003)

Following a High Court ruling in September 2009, there were 46 legal districts in Kenya, excluding Nairobi which constituted a 47th district.
Following the Kenyan general election, 2013, these districts and Nairobi now constitute the 47 counties which will be the basis for rolling out devolution as set out in the 2010 Constitution of Kenya :
Coast Province:
North Eastern Province:
Eastern Province:
Central Province:
Rift Valley Province:
Western Province:
Nyanza Province:
All these 46 districts have been replaced with 47 counties since March 2013, promoting them as the first level of administrative subdivisions of the country, and the 8 former provinces have been dissolved.
New districts started to be created by President Moi, and there were up to 57 districts in 2003 when President Kibaki first came into office.

List of the 70 districts of Kenya (starting 2007)

In early January 2007, 37 new districts were created by the government from the 14 former districts, rising their number to 70.
Many more districts have been created since then, such that in July 2009 there were 254 districts.
The creation of new districts has been criticised by opponents for being waste of money and a populist attempt to please local residents. The government, however, say new districts bring services closer to the people and will provide security.
The following list contains 208 districts, taken from a Kenyan government website in July 2009 :

Sub-counties (since March 2013)

In August 2009, however, the High Court of Kenya declared all districts created after 1992 illegal. The judge stated that the districts were created "in complete disregard of the law". As a result, Kenya had only 46 legal districts. Following the March 2013 elections, these 46 districts – together with the City of Nairobi – constitute the 47 counties into which Kenya is now divided administratively, and they are also the 47 constituencies for the elections to the National Senate.
All the former districts have disappeared, and are now considered only as "sub-counties", without autonomy; they are used in urban areas for a limited organisation for providing public services locally. These remaining sub-counties are transitional and could be replaced by more efficient cooperative structures grouping the local services in organised cities and their surrounding towns, either for dedicated missions or for temporary plans; so they may be deeply reorganised or disappear at any time. The remaining sub-counties already do not match with the subdivision of the new 47 counties into electoral-only "wards" (based on resident population, to determine the number of elected seats for each county in the National Senate.
Nairobi sub-counties