Kisumu

Brief information about the Kisumu

Kisumu Kisumu City Hall Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa, and the second largest city, after Kampala, Uganda, in the Lake Victoria Basin. It is the largest and principal city of Western Kenya, and the most important inland port in the Lake Victoria circuit.

Kisumu serves as the capital city of Kisumu County, Kenya and has a population of 599,468 (Kenya National Census, 2019). It is the immediate former capital of Nyanza Province, the headquarters of Kisumu County and the proposed headquarters of the Lake Region Economic Bloc, which is a conglomeration of 15 counties in Western Kenya.

Kisumu is an important link in the trade route between Lake Victoria and Mombasa because of its water and rail connections. It is also the chief terminus for the agricultural produce of Nyanza and Western provinces. It is the largest and most important city in the Western Kenya.

Kisumu serves as a trading and transportation hub for the Great Lakes region in western Kenya. Kisumu International Airport has regular flights to Nairobi and other neighboring cities such as Mombasa, Mwanza, and Kigali. It is the second most important city after Kampala in the greater Lake Victoria basin and according to the United Nations it is now recognized as a key city and a ‘Millennium City’ – the first of its kind in the world and also in East Africa.

Kisumu is famous for being the home town of Barack Hussein Obama Sr, the father to the 44th president of the United States, Barack H. Obama.It is officially known as Kisumu City (and formerly Port Florence). Kisumu port was founded in 1901 as the main inland terminal of the Uganda Railway named "Port Florence".

Although trade stagnated in the 1980s and 1990s, it is again growing around oil exports.Kisumu literally means a place of barter trade "sumo". The city has "Friendship" status with Cheltenham, United Kingdom and "sister city" status with Roanoke, Virginia and Boulder, Colorado, United States.

It sits at an elevation of 1,131 m (3,711 ft). Kisumu is 200 miles north west of Nairobi and its located at the shores of Lake Victoria. It lies at the northeastern edge of the Winam Gulf, a long, shallow arm that protrudes from the main body of Lake Victoria.

Kisumu is set 15 miles south of the Equator and has moderate temperatures because of its elevation of 3000+ ft. above sea level. Just four hours away by car is the massive Kenya National Game Preserve, the Masai Mara, a world-renowned safari attraction. Kisumu is a few kilometers South of the equator, so the days are always around 12 hours long and sunset is always between 1840h and 1900h.

The metropolitan region comprises the city and its suburbs and satellite towns of Maseno, Kondele and Ahero .