Kenyan officials have called for the conversion of more rural residential areas into urban-class towns and cities to counter the problem of rural-urban migration which often leads to overcrowding in existing urban areas.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said most African cities faced " undesirable situation" that large section of urban communities are living in crowded and unacceptable conditions while the formal businesses working in hostile surroundings.

The provision of basic services was becoming a major problem to most city administrations, some of which lacked requisite infrastructure and local legislations to tackle the problem of rural-urban migrations, said Kibaki when opening the fourth Summit of African city mayors and city administrators.

Kenya, he said, faced similar problems of providing services to the urban areas as estimated 50 percent of the country's 33 million people would move to urban areas over the next decade, " These shortcomings in our cities and towns compel us to come up with innovative and urgent measures to reverse the situation".

Kenyan Local Government Minister Musikari Kombo said rural- urban migration was one of the greatest problems facing most African countries.

"The challenges facing local governments are not unique to Kenya but they cut across all cities and local authorities in the world. One of the most notable challenges posed is the rural-urban migration where an influx of rural populations ventures into cities," Kombo said.

He said the failure to effectively tackle the rural-urban migration could impact negatively on the continent's efforts to achieve the UN poverty reduction objectives.

Kombo vouched for the creation of more cities in rural settings instead of encouraging the growth of mega cities in Africa.

"Migration is a reality and there is no reverse. I therefore urge this conference (Africities Summit) to share frankly good practices for putting up institutions that will alleviate problems of urbanization," he said.

Meanwhile, UN-Habitat, the United Nations Settlement body, said African countries should not attempt to stop rural-urban migration but should use the challenges it posed to prepare for tackling more serious tasks ahead.

"Achieving the Millennium Development Goals requires the local governments and key stakeholders to take the challenge of urbanization more seriously," said UN-Habitat's Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka, who addressed the summit.

She said the movement of people from rural to urban areas could not be stopped but should be managed and directed to improve the well-being of African people.

Experts said the rapid urbanization of the African continent might pose serious challenges in future, deepen the poverty levels in the continent, which was mostly fueled by high fertility rates.

"We are facing a scenario in Africa's development where the equation has changed from ruralites to urbanites. The urbanization of the sub-Saharan African countries has been very rapid," Prof Jossy Materu, director of the Africities Summit told Xinhua.

He said the most pronounced problems of Africa's urbanization were the shortage of water, the lacking of health facilities and the lack of adequate facilities for education.

"The problem in Africa is the income distribution, where you find that a majority of people have very little income to dispose. Income distribution is so skewed in favor of a clique of people," Materu said on the sidelines of the week-long Summit here.

Kenyan officials have proposed the formation of city metropolis to market African cities as regional centers for new investments to help generate new revenues for the governments.

Source: Xinhua