Garissa County

Its capital and largest urban area is Garissa. The large complex of refugee camps at Dadaab, with more than 260,000 Somali refugees (as of August 31, 2016), is located in Garissa County. The county has a population of 623,060, and a land area of about 45,720.2 km².

Demographics

Garissa County is mostly inhabited by ethnic Somalis. It has six constituencies:

Garissa County is located in the former North Eastern province of Kenya. The county borders Wajir County to the north, Isiolo County to the North West, Tana River County to the west, Lamu County to the south, and Somalia to the east amd north east.

Most of the inhabitants are ethnic Somalis. Nathif Adan is the current Garissa Governor,Yusuf Haji as the Senator and Shukra Hussein Gure as the Women Rep. The county has 6 constituencies and 30 wards as below:-

County Assembly

According to the new Constitution that was enacted in 2010, each County will have an assembly whose members are elected from single member constituencies known as wards. There may also be a number of nominated members as this is necessary to ensure that neither male nor female members constitute more than two-thirds of the assembly.

There will also be six nominated members to represent marginalised groups (persons with disabilities, and the youth) and a speaker who will be an ex-official member of the assembly. A County Assembly is elected for a term of five years.

The Speaker is elected by the assembly members from among people who are not members of the Assembly. The Speaker presides over all sittings of the assembly and in his absence is deputised a deputy speaker who is elected from members within the assembly.

The County assembly exercises an oversight over the County Government and makes laws that are necessary to ensure the smooth performance of the county government.

Socio-Economic Activities

Pastoralism is a major economic activity among the communities who inhabit the county. However the tourism sector is also growing with a number of hotels and resorts coming up. This compliments attractions such as the bouralgy Giraffe Sanctuary and other wildlife that contribute to the county’s tourism industry. The county prides itself in having the only ‘long-necked Gerenuk’ East African.

The dry and arid landscape could be exploited to offer tourism packages that encompass camel-back expeditions and camping activities. The region could also be opened up to dessert rallying activities similar to those carried out in different regions in the world.

The Tana River flowing through the region is a great source of water and if exploited could see the region enter an era of modest agricultural production.

Horticultural farming is also carried along river Tana, some of the fruits grown are paw paws, mangoes, water melon and bananas. Farmers are able to support themselves through the sale of these horticultural products to various food processing companies in the country.

Population

According to the national census program that was carried out in 2009 the population of Garissa County is approximately 623,060. The male population is estimated to be 334,939 while that of the female is 288,121.

It is also approximated that the number of people that live in the urban regions of the county are around 146,668 while the rest of the population lives in the rural areas. The total population is expected to increase by around 3% before the next census is carried out.

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