Wajir County Integrated Development Plan 2013-2017

Abstract

Wajir County is one of the 47 counties created under the Kenya Constitution 2010. The county is located in the North Eastern region of Kenya between latitudes 3o N 60‘N and 0o 20‘N and Longitudes 39o E and 41o E and covers an area of 56,685.9 Km2. It borders Somalia to the East, Ethiopia to the North, Mandera County to the Northeast, Isiolo County to the South West, Marsabit County to the West and Garissa County to the South. The county experiences annual average relative humidity of 61.8 per cent which ranges from 56 per cent in February to 68 per cent in June. It receives on average of 240 mm precipitation annually or 20 mm each month and the average temperature is 27.9 °C. The county comprises of eight sub-counties namely Wajir East, Tarbaj, Wajir West, Eldas, Wajir North, Buna, Habaswein and Wajir South. It is further divided into 28 divisions, 128 locations and 159 sub-locations. The county has 6 constituencies namely Wajir East, Tarbaj, Wajir west, Eldas, Wajir South and Wajir North and has 30 electoral wards. Wajir North and Wajir South constituencies have the largest number of wards at 7, and the rest have 4 each. Projections from the Kenya 2009 Population and Housing census indicate that the county has a total population of 727,965 which is projected to be 852,963 in 2017. Males comprise 55 per cent of the population whereas female population account for 45 per cent. The county has an inter-censual growth rate of 3.22 per cent which is higher than the national population growth rate of 3.0 per cent. The average county population density stands at 13 persons per square kilometre.