Each of the 47 counties in the country has a three-digit code number that was designated to it during the drafting of the new Constitution.
The widely known code, however, is 001 which was assigned to Mombasa County and which the Governor, Hassan Joho, loves to use as part of his name and even in his branding.
[caption caption="Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho in a cap branded '001 Joho'"]
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County 002 is Kwale followed by Kilifi (003), Tana River (004), Lamu (005) Taita-Taveta (006) Garissa (007), Wajir (008), Mandera (009)…with Nairobi being 047.
While these numbers have no logical order, a look at the older map of Kenya shows that the counties are listed in groups corresponding with the old provinces.
The listing begins with Counties in the Coast followed by North Eastern, Eastern, Central, Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and finally Nairobi.
[caption caption="Map of Kenya showing the eight provinces"]
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According to a previous report on the numbering of counties, the logic behind beginning the list from the Coast region was that since the region borders the Ocean, it is the “absolute end” of the country - hence it was picked to be the starting point.
Mombasa is said to have begun the list of the Coast counties because it is the most populous area in the region.
The listing then moves to provinces bordering the Coast i.e North-Eastern and Eastern and then continues from East to West.
It’s, however, not clear why Nairobi was placed as the last.
Here is the full list of the counties:
[caption caption="List of the 47 Counties"]
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