Background History

Mandera Municipality is a semi-autonomous entity of the Mandera County Government established in accordance with the Urban and Cities Acts, 2011. The Municipality has a service charter, fully constituted and functional Municipal Board and a Municipal Manager. The municipality covers three wards, namely; Township, Neboi and Khalalio wards. The Municipality headquarter is Mandera Town which also doubles up as the County and Mandera East Sub-County Headquarters. The Municipality covers an area of 599.21 Km2 and has a population of 108,272 people according to the last gazetted census. 

Mandera town is the regional economic hub due to its strategic geographical location. Mandera Municipality borders Somalia to North and Ethiopia to the South, thus serving populations from both the neighbouring Countries.  This has resulted in immense pressure on the social amenities within the town and the Municipality at large.

The major economic activities are crop farming, livestock rearing and trade. Mandera Municipality borders Daua River, which is the longest river running along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The river covers 2 of the 3 wards that make up the Municipality i.e. Khalalio and Neboi wards. Therefore, majority of the residents of the Municipality practice subsistence farming through irrigation, where the surplus is sold in markets in Mandera and other neighboring Towns. Being pastoral communities, the locals also keep livestock which is one of their sources of livelihoods.

The strategic geographical location at the border increases movement of people, goods and services between the neighboring towns of Beled Hawa and Suftu which increases trade but also poses security challenges. The town also doubles as the County and Municipal headquarters. The combination of these factors has enabled the town to develop and become the economic and social hub in the region.

The Municipality achieves its mandate by providing services in the key priority areas, enforcing adherence to development plans and undertaking development of infrastructure. Towards this end, the entity has established departments to execute its mandate and the Board oversights the management in the delivery of services. To achieve integrated development, the Municipality works closely with the relevant County/National government departments, entities and donors. This report provides a general outlook on the nature and scope of the Municipality's activities.