Abstract:
The objective of this research was to harmonize political and administrative
boundaries in Mavoko Constituency, Machakos County, Kenya, using geospatial
technology and public consultation in order to address the numerous
disputes that exist. Specifically, the project focused on analyzing the existing
electoral and administrative boundaries in the area of study by identifying all
existing gaps and overlaps, rectifying the identified gaps and overlaps and
created a web based geo-portal of the harmonized sub location boundaries to
enable sharing. This was achieved through first putting the various datasets on
the same Spatial Reference System and comparing them in order to identify
and rectify them using various geospatial operations, public consultation and
field work. The result was a single harmonized layer for the sub location data
set for the study area. The project finally developed a customized GIS web
based portal for sharing the harmonized Sub location boundary. This was uploaded
on an open source platform, which has the capability for offline use in
the field. The project worked on a hypothesis that if the sub location boundaries
adopted by the various Government and Public organizations and individuals
doing any kind of mapping in Kenya was a single harmonized data set,
the emerging issues on boundary disputes between Counties, Constituencies
and County Assembly Wards (CAW’s) would not occur. This is because there
would be authentic, consisted and authoritative geo-information which maintains
a harmonized, consistent, reusable and readily available data. The development
of the geo portal ensured that the results of the research are easily
accessible on www.msc2015boundariesmavoko.info.ke/mavoko.
