West Pokot County

West Pokot County is a county of Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Kapenguria. The county covers an area of approximately 9,169.4 square kilometers and stretches a distance of 132 kilometers from North to South.[2] West Pokot County is bordered to the north by Turkana County, to the east by Baringo County, to the southeast by Elgeyo-Marakwet County, to the south by Trans Nzoia County and to the west by Uganda. According to the 2019 census, the county has a population of 621,241.[1] The county is home to Tegla Loroupe, one of the most famous Kenyan female runners.

West Pokot County
County
Flag
Coat of arms
Location in Kenya
Coordinates: 01.23333°N 035.1167°E / 01.23333; 035.1167
Country Kenya
FormedMarch 4, 2013
CapitalKapenguria
Government
 • GovernorJohn Krop Lonyang'apuo
Area
 • Total8,418.2 km2 (3,250.3 sq mi)
Population
 (2019)[1]
 • Total621,241
 • Density74/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+3 (EAT)
Websitewestpokot.go.ke

Etymology

Demographics

Pokot people are the main inhabitants of the county and there is also a minority community of Sengwer.[3]

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1979 158,652—    
1989 225,449+42.1%
1999 308,086+36.7%
2009 512,690+66.4%
2019 621,241+21.2%
source:[4]

Geography

Mount Elgon is located in West Pokot County.

Constituencies
  1. Kapenguria Constituency
  2. Kacheliba Constituency
  3. Pokot South Constituency
  4. Sigor Constituency

County subdivisions
Local authorities (councils)
Authority Type Population* Urban pop.*
KapenguriaMunicipality56,01912,984
ChepareriaTown8,212901
PokotCounty243,8550
Total-308,08613,885
* 1999 census. Source:[5]
Administrative divisions
Division Population* Urban pop.* Headquarters
Alale29,6790
Chepareria68,518900Chepareria
Chesegon21,3430
Kacheliba20,1510
Kapenguria62,74612,438Kapenguria
Kasei9,8790
Kongelai20,0180Kongelai
Lelan32,9310
Sigor42,8210Sigor
Total308,08613,338-
* 1999 census. Sources[6][7]

The district has four constituencies:

Economy

The West Pokot county economy is principally driven by agriculture and livestock rearing. Some of the main crops grown include maize, a staple ingredient grown mainly in West Pokot Sub-County, as well as finger millet, coffee, beans, onions, sweet potatoes, green grams, peas, mangoes, oranges, bananas, potatoes and pyrethrum. The latter two are mainly grown in South Pokot sub-County.

In Pokot Central and North sub-counties, zebu indicine cattle have long been kept for meat production while in West Pokot and Pokot South sub-counties dairy breeds, primarily Ayrshire and Friesian, are increasingly kept for milk production.[2]

Sport
Lonah Chemtai

Infrastructure

Energy

The Turkwel Hydro Power Plant operated by electricity generating company Kengen is situated in West Pokot County. Though the plant produces about 105MW of power which is fed to the national grid, many communities around the power plant and the extensive districts of West Pokot and Turkana do not benefit from this resource.

Notable residents

2019 Landslide

On the 23rd of November 2019 there was a landslide that has killed over 52 people. At least 22 other people are missing after this disaster, over 22,000 people have been displaced after this disaster.[9]

[10][11]

gollark: Do what, randomly wake-on-LAN things?
gollark: Yes, de-oed wool is great.
gollark: Just patch the interpreter?
gollark: GPUs do this, kind of. GPUs are fast. Therefore, do this.
gollark: Obvious objections:- "what do you even mean, gollark, that sounds like just ILP but stupider" - maybe, yes, the main difference being execution of separate bits of the program at once- "why did you just invent SIMD but worse, ish" - oops- "but cache contention" - too bad, consume bees

References
  1. "2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census Volume I: Population by County and Sub-County". Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  2. County Government. "West Pokot County Informaion". westpokot.go.ke. County Government of West Pokot. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  3. "West Pokot County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP 2018-2022)". Maarifa. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  4. Kenya: Administrative Division population statistics
  5. http://treasury.go.ke/cbs.go.ke/pdf/authority.pdf
  6. http://www.cck.go.ke/html/final_annex1_cover_status.pdf
  7. http://www.ilri.cgiar.org/html/Urban%20Poverty%20all%20Kenya%20Province%20through%20Location%20Final.xls
  8. https://www.biographyonline.net/sport/tegla-loroupe.html
  9. Death toll from landslides hits 52 - VIDEO, retrieved 3 December 2019
  10. Muraya, Joseph (20 April 2020). "4,000 displaced by West Pokot mudslides that killed 4 » Capital News". Capital News. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  11. "Houses destroyed as fresh landslides hit West Pokot - Kenya". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
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