Assessing Drivers and Effects of Peri-urban Development in Secondary Towns: a Case Study of Kitui Town in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

The peri-urban development phenomenon has been of concern since the 20th century. Governments, scholars, and institutions have invested heavily in attempts to understand how this phenomenon manifests and models developed on how to address it. Despite these efforts, the problem persists, raising the critical question of why urban areas grow beyond their boundaries. The study sought to contribute to the debate on the urban-rural interface with a focus on the form, nature, and character of peri-urban development. Assessing the forces behind peri-urban development, how this affects the PUAs (Peri-urban areas) socially, economically, and environmentally and evaluating the best ways to sustainable urban-rural linkages. To achieve the objectives of the study various methods were used. On acquiring the targeted households, a buffer of one kilometer from the town’s boundary was developed, after which the target household was stratified based on sub-locations while for the key informants the study used purposive sampling. On spatial data, the study used Landsat 5 images for the years 1987,1997,2007,2017, and 2021 to map land use and land cover changes as well as peri-urban development forms. The study further used observation and photography as well as mapping of institutions and basic facilities. The peri-urban area of Kitui town exhibits; the ribbon peri-urban development form, compact peri-urban development form at the edges as well as scattered ones. The peri-urban area has also seen an increase in built-up area from 1.5% in 1987 to 10.9% in 2021 while land under agriculture has declined from 77.5% in 1987 to 68.5% in 2021. Even with agriculture being the dominant land use, the venture is majorly for subsistence. On management, the peri-urban region is entirely under municipality boundary but held under freehold and zoned as agricultural land. On the force behind peri-urban development, cheaper rent in peripheries scored highest with 18.2% while serene environment scored 14.6%. Other major factors motivating factors were; population growth localization of facilities/institution in the town, the pro-urban approach of using the town as a growth pole, Lack of town and county spatial plan, therefore, leaving the regulatory authority with no instruments to use for development control. From the findings of the study, it is evident that even with different locations and regions the drivers of peri-urban development are similar but the replication of approaches to provide a solution to the problem does not yield fruits therefore necessary for countries in the global south to develop local solutions. The urban and countryside embrace integrated management this will ensure approaches of management adopted do not make any of the divide worse off.