Kisumu City

Kisumu is located 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Nairobi and is situated on the shore of Lake Victoria. It is known officially as Kisumu City and is the third largest city in Kenya. 

Kisumu is the administrative center of Kisumu County, as well as the capital of Nyanza Province. Kenya originally utilized eight provinces before the current 47 counties were adopted from the 2010 Constitution.

 Nyanza Province consists of Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii, and Nyamira counties. 

Ninety percent of the residents of Kisumu are part of the Luo ethnic group. The two official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili.

Most people in Kisumu are trilingual though, as the Luo speak Dholuo. The word Kisumu is the English degradation of the Luo word of “Kisumo.” 

Sumo means a place of trading or bartering. The governor of Kisumu is Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o Kisumu, the father of the well-known actress Lupita Nyong’o. 

Kisumu maintains sister city status with Roanoke, Virginia and Boulder, Colorado. Kisumu does not really have a dry season and receives heavy rainfall year round. The wettest month is typically April, while January is typically the driest. 

Kisumu is the home of many universities such as the University of Nairobi-Kisumu Campus, Maseno University, Mount Kenya University, Kisumu Polytechnic, and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (named after the first Vice President of Kenya). 

Kisumu is served by Kisumu International Airport and has long been a major train hub. 

The city of Kisumu is connected to Nairobi, Mombasa, and Nakuru via the A104 highway. There are many attractions to visit in and around Kisumu.

Kit Mikayi

Kit Mikayi is an unusual stone formation located along the Kisumu-Bindo highway, about 29 kilometers from Kisumu City. Kit Mikayi, or Kit-Mikayi as it is also known, is a Dholuo phrase which translates to “the stone of the first woman” or the “stone of the first wife.”

We noted earlier Dholuo is the language of the ethnic Luo people. It is also located near Ndere Island. The population of the nearby Seme village consider Kit Mikayi to be a sacred place for prayers during famines and other troubles.

Hippo Point

Hippo Point is a viewing area and wildlife conservancy situated on Lake Victoria, sitting at 6200 feet or about 2000 meters elevation. Lake Victoria is the largest freshwater lake in Africa. Hippo Point is about 600 acres; it also offers a camping site and a fishing port. There are more than 1200 animals who call it home with 350 species of birds.

Kisumu Impala Sanctuary

http://www.kws.go.ke/content/kisumu-impala-sanctuary

The Kisumu Impala Sanctuary sits on the shore of Lake Victoria. It is 355 kilometers northwest from Nairobi and is nestled close to the Hippo Point in Kisumu. The Impala Sanctuary is home to a rare impala called the Sitatunga antelope. It also houses leopards, lions, rhinos, cheetahs, buffalo, and jackals, among many others. 

The sanctuary is open from 6 am-6 pm daily. Entrance fees for foreigners are $22 USD for adults and $13 USD for children. This is well worth a stop if you visit Kisumu.

https://goo.gl/maps/scZNUGBCXmhVXNbN9

Kisumu Museum Railways, Kenya,

https://www.museums.or.ke/kisumu/

One of the many fascinating attractions to visit in Kisumu is the Kisumu Museum. It was opened on April 7, 1980 and is located on the Kisumu-Kericho highway. 

The museum is made up of outdoor pavilions, which contain a number of exhibitions. These exhibitions include a freshwater aquarium, snake park, and tortoise pens. 

The snake park holds extremely deadly snakes, in the form of Puff Adders, Black and Green Mambas, and Cobras.

There are two major attractions in the museum. The first is the traditional Luo homestead. The second is the giant tortoise who is reputed to be 300 years old. It was imported to Kenya from the Seychelles in 1930.

The Luo homestead is a life-size replica and includes the houses of three wives, livestock pens, and a granary. 

It gives a comprehensive view of a Luo home. Last I knew the entrance fee was 100 shillings for an adult.

https://goo.gl/maps/H5qqUu3kpReKnDd37

Ndere Island National Park

nderenp@kws.go.ke

http://www.kws.go.ke/content/ndere-island-national-park

Ndere Island National Park is located on Lake Victoria. It is famous for its birdlife, including beautiful African fish eagles and grey-headed kingfishers.

There are over 100 species of birds in the park, as well as hippos, lizards, crocodiles, and baboons. When looking southwest, one can see Kampala, Uganda. There is only one place to camp in the park, called the Bao campsite.

The park can be reached via the Kisumu-Bondo road from Kisumu City or you can take a 45 minute speed boat trip. The national park is located 12 kilometers from the road. 

Entry fees for foreigners are $20 USD for adults and $10 USD for children. The park can be contacted at nderenp@kws.go.ke or 0774 747 946.

https://goo.gl/maps/NLGvdUvbPQm6mmTh7

Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is listed as one of the African Great Lakes and has a surface area of 23,146 sq. miles or 59,947 sq. kilometers. The lake is considered too young geologically at 400,000 years old and receives about 80% of its water from rainfall. The average depth is 130 feet or 40 meters; the maximum depth is 260 feet or 80 meters. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the largest tropical lake in the world. It is also the second largest freshwater lake in the world, behind Lake Superior in the U.S.

Kanam Prehistoric Site

The Kanam Prehistoric Site is located on Homa Peninsula, along the shore of Lake Victoria, near Homa Mountain. While the site at Kanam was already known from prior fossil excavations; there were remarkable finds in 1932 by the paleoanthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey. 

He uncovered fossils containing Pleistocene fauna, pebble tools, and the fossil of a human mandible, in the Pleistocene beds at Kanam West.

The discovery was gazetted or officially announced in 1933. In 1935, the geologist P.G.H. Boswell published his own observations of Leakey’s conclusions from the Kanam mandible, in a journal called Nature. Leakey had associated the Kanam mandible with the Homo genus. He also thought it possible it was the H. Sapiens genus. 

Boswell claimed that sediments in Kanjera were slumped (downward movement of earth or rock along a curve) due to gravity flow while wet. This would mean that Leakey could not accurately identify the fossils as young or old. 

In 1987, the Smithsonian conducted excavations in Kanjera. These excavations showed that there were 44 meters of stacked sedimentary layers; illustrating that Boswell was wrong on this claim when he tried to refute Leakey. 

Today researchers believe the mandible is Neanderthaloid. Recently, other researchers found bones dating between 1 and 6 million years old. This is a really fantastic place to visit. Kenya is well known for having some of the oldest recorded civilizations in the world (Lake Turkana).

https://goo.gl/maps/YDtuLVXTTYnUFY3R8

Equator Sign

Kisumu is 15 miles or 24 kilometers south of the equator. The equator actually passes through Maseno, a town from one of the four districts in Kisumu.

The equator sign sits at an elevation of 5,002 feet on the Kisumu- Kakamega Road. It is just a road sign, with no entry fees, but it is a good Instagram spot.

https://goo.gl/maps/KJJ9CJhT85pX7Arx5

Acacia Premier Hotel

https://goo.gl/maps/AsGwKFun6gTG9rfK9

Best Western Kisumu Hotel

https://goo.gl/maps/8durxEFb6KFTnQwW6

Ciala Resort Hotel

https://goo.gl/maps/gmkbMqJ7FN8R5guY7

Whirl Spring Hotel

https://goo.gl/maps/CHv1ohp6A5fSc6az9