Kisumu County government has now approved the Kisumu Integrated Strategic Urban Development Plan to spur the city’s major urban development options over a period of 30 years.
The county executive member for roads and planning Eng. Vincent Kodera said the plan is now ready and will be forwarded to the county assembly to make it a legal document guiding the future development and growth of the city.
Kodera said ISUD funded by the French Agency for Development is a component of a larger project of Kisumu Urban Plan.
“Kisumu City was lastly planned in the early 1960s and it is time to re-plan it. We already have a plan that will guide us in planning the city a fresh,” he said.
He said the city is faced by challenges of urban sprawl, slum expansion, inadequate service delivery and high unemployment levels.
Speaking to the press in Kisumu, Kodera said in the plan there are a number of suggestions that will be actualised based on the availability of enough resources.
He said among the suggestions in the plan, requires that the current Kisumu International Airport be relocated towards Awasi along Kisumu-Nairobi road.
The port of Kisumu is also marked for relocation to Dunga beach in the deep waters so as to provide enough space for extension under the Kisumu economic zone project.
“There are major changes that will be done on how Kisumu looks like, we want first of all to ensure the city does not turn its back on Lake Victoria,” he announced.