Urbanization in Kenya and perhaps in subSaharan Africa can be described as prescriptive rather than organic. We posit that this prescriptive urbanization can be checked and balanced by employing the governance model of devolution and rural capacity. We first review competing views on urbanization in Kenya during the colonial and postcolonial era and its contribution to disenfranchising both urban and rural inhabitants. We then examine devolution in Kenya through the lens of Lefebvre's theory of production of space and the right to the city, enabling us to contextualize and redefine 'the right to the city'. In the second part we analyze the potential of rural capacity in Malaysia to absorb a large influx of return immigrants and demonstrates how they have adapted and benefited from the prosperity of land in the face of diminishing energy resources and de-industrialization. We conclude that coupling devolution with rural capacity may hold the key to check rapid urbanization, especially in Kenya.