Talk of Kisumu and many will think of the Luo people if not Lake Victoria. But more than these, many other facts about this lakeside city are unknown to many.
Did you know that Kisumu hosted the first ever air flight in East and Central Africa in 1931 during an inaugural mail flight from Kisumu to England? It is one of the only two urban areas in Kenya which can be accessed by air, water, rail and road.
The famous town clock on Oginga Odinga street was unveiled on August 1938 by Sir Robert Brooke Pophan, the then Governor of Kenya during the British rule!
The Kisumu Impala Park was initially called Connaught Parade during the during the colonial rule. 5. Winston Churchill visited Kisumu in 1907!
The Huduma Centre building is the tallest in Kisumu.
Some of the white settlers actually believed, erroneously that it derived its name from 'sumu' - a Swahili word meaning poison because of the dangerous malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the area.
Kisumu is the second most important city in the greater Lake Victoria Basin after Kampala in Uganda... Its name -Kisumu comes from 'Kisuma' a luo word which is itself a derivative of 'sumo' meaning the act of exchanging goods or simply barter trade.
It was first named Port Florence after Florence Preston, the wife of the senior railways engineer.
Kisumu has one of the largest Kenyan Asian community. Kisumu is the only city in Western Kenya and did you know that Kisumu is home to one of the Hollywood stars Lupita Nyong'o?