MOYALE TOWN SOCIO-ECONOMIC BASELINE SURVEY FOR PLANNING OF MOYALE TOWN By Dr Opiyo R, Mwenje E, Okeyo M, Mutunga S, & Odhiambo S 2020)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Moyale town falls in the Kenyan ASAL regions which are perennially pledged with droughts and unreliable rains. Although the government has made efforts to improve the livelihood status of the locals. The town’s socio-economic situation has been determined for planning purposes. As a result, it has sprawled without any development guidelines.

Decisions made relying on evidence are key to the effective realization of equitable and sustainable development objectives. It is on this backdrop that it was necessary to conduct a household and business survey for Moyale town in order to have a comprehension of its socio-economic dynamics, spatial planning and development needs, cross border implications and environmental factors. This report is a culmination of literature review and the findings of the survey conducted between November 2019 and March 2020. The report presents the background information from the literature and findings from both the household and business surveys, key informants and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), mapping which are synthesized and compiled this report into the following seven (7) chapters; Introduction, Spatial Context-Challenges and Opportunities, Spatial Development Trends, Population, Demographics and Socio-Cultural Concerns, Infrastructure Services and Livelihoods Profiles, Economic Sectors and Income Generation, Conclusion and Recommendations.

Methodologically, the survey employed a mixed-method that integrated 18 Key informant interviews (KIIs), 4 Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), 463 Household questionnaires, 284 Business Questionnaires, 3 Market Profiles, and more than 20 mapping of key facilities and service infrastructures. Moreover, desktop studies and literature reviews were conducted to generate background information and relevant data for triangulation purposes. Categorically, the survey followed a stepwise process that included: Preparation/preliminaries - which entailed reviewing of relevant project documents and briefs, preparation of data collection tools including household and business questionnaires, FGDs, KIIs Schedules, and field mapping tools that were all used for documenting various land uses in Moyale town on aspects outlined in the objectives section; Urban Growth analysis of Moyale town capturing the current and future human settlement scenarios informed by growth and development determinants, livelihood patterns and strategies, potential areas of risk or conflict, suitable areas for different land uses for the town; data analysis and compilation of this situational analysis report which focuses on the outcomes of the various stakeholders engagements during data collection. Both purposive sampling and snowball were used to identify the key informants and the Four (4) survey wards. Data analysis was conducted via qualitative analysis, and descriptive statistics, and mapping using tools like Microsoft Excel, SPSS 22 and ArcGIS 10.2.

The basic demographic analysis shows that most of the households interviewed (99.6%) were Kenyan and also that most (98%) of the businesses in Moyale town are also owned by Kenyans. Household age distribution ranged from 20 to 94 years as compared to business owners and operators whose age was found to range from 17 to 78 years with 61.6% and 46.6% accounting for 35 years and below for businesses and households respectively. Males accounted for 55.1 and 53.5% for households and businesses interviewed respectively. It was noted a sizeable population (52.9%) of households and (47.5%) of business operators had no formal education. This really creates a need for advocating for adult education in the area.

Moyale Town was found to have various economic activities with micro and small enterprise businesses mainly employing only the owner (65.1%) being the dominant type of business. The type was mainly retail shops engaging with retailing of basic goods and services, electronic shops, clothing and beauty shops, groceries kiosks, hardware shops, livestock trading, butcheries, motorcycle spare parts, charcoal selling, petrol stations, water vending, motorcycle (bodaboda) riders, repairing of motorcycles services, automobiles mechanics, restaurants and hospitality industries, cyber cafes and photocopy services among others. Most of the businesses were seen to be active and it seems there were a lot of commercial activities going on, which may be justified the presence of established banks such as Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Equity Bank amongst other financial institutions in the area. The business operators noted that there was also a vibrant cross-border trade between Moyale and Ethiopia and that most of the foodstuffs sold in the Kenyan side were gotten from Ethiopia and also that products such as fuel is gotten from Ethiopia which has opened a black market where the unscrupulous traders smuggle some of this commodities into the local market. Such kind of interactions between the locals of Moyale Kenya and Ethiopia has had very little impacts on the local economic/business development which is counterintuitive since it is not a beneficiary to the town which is both a transit and border town. Also, in business and livelihood dynamics it was noted that there is a paradigm shift emerging with locals engaging in business as a way of addressing the failing livestock sector due to poor rains and market prices.

The survey findings indicate a deficiency in the provision of social and physical amenities such as roads, drainage systems, water, health, schools, waste management, and recreational facilities. This seems to affect the human settlement pattern in Moyale town as shown by varied settlement patterns where at the core, mostly in Township and parts of Heilu-Manyatta and Butiye areas, the settlement pattern is nucleated whereas it is linear in Odda, Golbo ward and dispersed in most far-flung parts of Heilu-Manyatta and in some parts of Golbo such as Elwedhe

The settlement pattern was also greatly influenced by the distribution of schools, health facilities, commercial services which were skewed spatially as they were concentrated in Moyale Township ward and parts of Manyatta Heilu ward, which were coincidentally densely populated and highly developed in terms of residential functions. Social strife and conflicts were reported with respect to access to resources such as water and pasture, though it was noted to be reduced but this could also be a pointer to some areas either deserted or attracting few settlers.

Being a border town, it is expected that Moyale is a cosmopolitan town. Indeed, numerous cultures exist in the town, some local and other migrants from both within the country and the neighboring ones like Ethiopia and Somalia. Achieving social cohesion and integration may call a well-distributed ethnical and or racial settlement within any urban context. However, a crosstabulation of the nationalities of the surveyed respondents and the place of residence, it was found out that all the respondents of Ethiopian origin reside in Township ward. This ward happens to be both the town center of Moyale and bordering Ethiopia to the north. From a planning perspective, it will take some efforts to promote socio-spatial integration since there is a distinct and deliberate decision to co-locate in the town centre by the migrants (Ethiopians). On the same note, it becomes interesting to unravel the factors contributing to this location preference by the migrants, but this may be explained by the cosmopolitan nature of Moyale and more so the Township ward.

In conclusion, it will be important for planning and development interventions pay attention to the following variables; a) education level of the residents, where almost half of the population has no formal education, b) inadequate healthcare and staffing, c) ad hoc growth and development of the town- the town lacks zoning regulation and development control tool, d) inadequate water and sanitation, e) poor condition of access roads and lack of drainages, f) lack of public transport terminal facilities, g) smuggling of goods using illegal routes from and to Ethiopian, h) unemployment among youth, i) issues of insecurity associated with lack of infrastructure and lastly j) urban governance and institutional reforms.

The recommendations given by the residents and businesses revolved around two aspects of infrastructure namely; a) hard/physical infrastructure- touches on the need to invest in access roads, drainages, streetlights, construction of hospitals and dams strategically, and b) soft/social infrastructure- focusing on improvement of the health and educational system. A combination of these two infrastructures were considered critical in addressing the resurgent socio-economic challenges and enhancing the competitiveness of Moyale town as envisaged in the Marsabit County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP). This need to be factored carefully in preparation of the town’s integrated urban plan by balancing the current lifestyles such as pastoralism and lack of proper land tenure system, which may require further dialogues among citizens and their leadership in addressing the needs and priorities expresses as all of the proposed interventions will require land and it was noted that County or national government have not invested in land banking where these proposed ideas once planned are implemented without affecting the citizens by being displaced to create room for the implementation of the planned ideas which are to guide future development of the town by enhancing livelihood opportunities through organized planned and orderly land use development. To enable achievement of all these issues in a coordinated manner, Moyale town needs governance reform to be in line with the requirements of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, by having an urban board which is mandated to implement the town’s integrated development projects as noted in this report.