Planning for the Economic Potential of Donyo Market Centre, Machakos County

Abstract

Market centres play a crucial role in promoting the development of the areas they serve through social and economic activities that are carried out in the markets. These activities attract several land uses to the markets resulting in a mixed land use pattern characterised by public amenities, public utilities, residential, industrial and educational uses, with commercial use being the dominant land use. However, most centres, especially in the country, have been characterised by low economic growth, which is mainly associated with weak governance, informality and poor infrastructure. This has led to increased rural poverty due to the need for an enabling environment for economic activities, hindering the realisation of market centres as potential economic hubs for the rural population. The underperformance of rural markets has not been extensively studied while focusing on spatial planning and re-organisation of land uses as a solution to the underlying problem. This has led to the implementation of projects within the rural markets which lack a sense of land use planning leading to un-utilised space and land use conflict. The study focused on Donyo Market Centre, which is a rural market centre located within the Kiboko sub-location, Matungulu Sub-county, Machakos County. The main objectives of the study were to (1) determine the main economic activities at Donyo Market Centre, (2) to determine factors influencing economic productivity of the activities, (3) to appraise existing pattern of land uses in Donyo Market Centre and (4) to propose long-term land use planning model/strategy for suitable economic activities in Donyo Market Centre. The study explored concepts and principles in central place functions and territorial development, economic growth pole and circular cumulative causation processes, in which the market centre is viewed as a magnet that draws people, commodities, and services to itself and disperses them through "spread" and "backwash" effects to the rural surroundings. A sample of 109 respondents from the Donyo market centre, including buyers and sellers, was chosen. These respondents were mostly subjected to questionnaire administration using simple random sampling and the KoBo gather program. Key informants in county and national government offices, as well as participants in informal focus groups with stakeholders like motorbike (boda boda) riders and traders' representatives, served as sources of additional primary data. While GIS was used to analyse spatial data, SPSS and Excel were utilised to analyse statistical data. The data collection was done between 6th March 2023 and 10th March 2023 using the KoBo Collect application to administer questionnaires and other data collection instruments, including photography and observation.