Kisumu is situated on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest and the world’s second largest freshwater lake after (Lake Superior in the United States), on what is called the Winam Gulf. The city has one of the most breathtaking sunsets.  The town of Kisumu has a population of around 100,000 people. A further 150,000 live in the surrounding district. Lying on the equator, Kisumu’s climate is hot all year (83°F). There are rainy seasons between March and June and in November. Kisumu has a full range of Mission Opportunities in educational, industrial, agricultural, medical and social facilities. It is multi-ethnic  town with the Luo tribe predominating. Although Luo is the local language, Swahili is spoken throughout Kenya, and English is also widely understood. Other main towns in the region are Migori, Isebania,Rongo,Kisii, Kericho, Eldoret, Kitale, Busia, Kakamega.  The city formerly called Port Florence has one of the most breathtaking Sunsets and is developing a tourism industry with the attractions of Lake Victoria, the wildlife and rich History (The 44th President of USA has his ancestry in Kogello in the outskirts of Kisumu City). The railroad from Mombasa reached Kisumu in 1901.And as a principal Lake Port, it is also the third Largest City in Kenya and a commercial center of a farm region and houses manufacturing in areas such as Refined Sugar, frozen fish, textiles and processed sisal among others.

 

Luxury Hotels:

Midrange:

Budget:
There are numerous budget hotels in Kisumu with nice bright rooms , hot water and clean bathrooms.Like
Kisumu Beach Resort is a basic lakeside resort and is popular among campers.

Get a temporary membership at the Nyanza Club and indulge in the various sporty activities—swimming, pool, billiards, tennis, and squash. Imperial Hotel , Kisumu Yacht Club,Kiboko Bay Beach Resort, Kisumu Beach Resort.Climb nearby Mount Homa on Lake Victoria’s south shore to get a fantastic view.Walk down the dusty streets in and around Kisumu and check out the “dukas” or street shops, most of which sell audio tapes of Luo music.Hang out the bustling harbor and take in life as it happens.
A visit to Ruma National Park (located south of Lake Victoria) can be very refreshing. It is home to Kenya’s rarest and largest antelope. Ruma can be reached from Kericho via Kisii and then through the fishing villages of Homa Bay and Kendu Bay. Or take the ferry from Luanda (on the way to Bondo) to Mbita Point. Vist Thimlich Ohinga, East Africa’s most important archaeological site. It is east of Ruma National Park. You may need your own transport to get there.Two hours from Kisumu on the south shore is the volcanic Simbi Lake, quite popular with bird watchers.Sail to the twin islands of Mbita and Rusinga, uninhabited by people and full of monitor lizards, birds, crocodiles and snakes, and visit Tom Mboya’s memorial on the north side of the island.Take a break in Nandi town and drop in at one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country, Nandi Bear Club.Sail to Ndere Island, inhabited by rare sitatunga antelope, monitor lizards, African fish eagles, and gorgeous kingfishers.For more adventure, drive to Lodwar, via Kitale, with a stopover at the Saiwa Swamp National Park. Lodwar is near the western shores of Lake Turkana.

.The Kimwa Grand ,Mon Ami, Octopus Bottoms-Up Club .

Kisumu’s main market off Jomo Kenyatta Highway is one of Kenya’s most animated and largest. The Kibuye Market at the highway is a huge outdoor market—everything from second-hand clothes to furniture and food can be found here. The market stretches for a few kilometers! If you are looking for crafts, the various craft stalls near Kisumu Hotel are among the best places to go to in Kenya. Amidst the numerous products, some gems can be found.

Seafood is abundant in this lakeside town of Kisumu. For delicious fish fry, try any of the numerous shack restaurants on the lake’s shore. Kiboko Bay Beach Resort is known to have the best restaurant in Kisumu. Kisumu Yacht Club in Dunga requires a temporary membership, but the food is excellent—from struffed fish to chicken biriyani to palak paneer (spinach with cottage cheese).Grill House on Accra Street offers a variety of food and is a nice streetside eatery.Hussein Pan House on Accra Street has great Asian foods like biriyani and pilau. Vault Restaurant off Oginga Odinga Road has an Italian menu; you’ll find good pizzas and pasta here.New Victoria Hotel on Gor Mahia Road is a brightly colored restaurant and the meals are filling.
Oriental Restaurant in Al-Imran Plaza is an ok Chinese food eatery.For Kenyan cuisine, check out Kimwa Café Annex off Oginga Odinga Road, New Farmers Hotel on Odera Street, and Tot Coffee House on Accra Street.

Air:
Kisumu is served by an airport, with regular daily flights to Nairobi and elsewhere. Currently expansion work is going on with a view to elevate it to International  Status so much due to increased trade brought about by the recreated East African Community Protocol, and probably in anticipation that AIR FORCE ONE will Land there soon when the 44th President of the USA comes to Kenya to see his rural folks in the outskirts of Kisumu.Kenya Airways, Fly 540, Jet Link & East Africa Air has daily flights to and from Nairobi.

Road

Rail
Trains to Nairobi leave on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. Expect delays! It takes about 13 hours from Kisumu to Nairobi.
Boda-Boda
Bicycle taxis are numerous in Kisumu and great fun way to get around the town. And the rides are quite cheap as well.
Ferry
The Lake Victoria ferries are steam- and diesel-powered ships used for freight and passenger transport between Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya on Lake Victoria. The main ports on the lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja.Typical journey times between Port Bell, in Uganda and Kisumu, in Kenya, are 13 hours and between Port Bell and Mwanza, in Tanzania, are 19 hours.The original ferries serving the Uganda Railway in the early 1900s, were built in Britain, disassembled, transported in parts by sea to Mombasa and by rail to Kisumu and reassembled. The successor to Uganda Railway links Mombasa to the port of Kisumu on Lake Victoria. A Tanzanian railway links Mwanza and Dar es Salaam. This network allows countries of the African interior such as Uganda and Rwanda to transport freight to and from world markets.

is a forested, beautiful housing of a variety of bird species, hippos, impala, and crocodiles. Chartered passenger boats can be taken to get there—keep an eye out for hippos on your way!

Was established in 1980, has a series of outdoor pavilions. Some of the pavilions house animals. One pavilion contains numerous aquaria with a wide variety of fish from Lake Malawi. Another pavilion has an enclosure with mambas, spitting cobras, puff adders, and other venomous snakes. The museum has additional exhibits outdoors, including a snake pit and a crocodile enclosure. Other pavilions show weaponry, jewelry, farm tools, and other artifacts made by the various peoples of the Nyanza Province. One pavilion houses the prehistoric TARA rock art, which was removed for its own protection to the museum after it was defaced by graffiti in its original location.The museum's most important and largest exhibition is the UNESCO-sponsored Ber-gi-dala. This is a full-scale recreation of a traditional Luo homestead. Ber-gi-dala consists of the home, granaries, and livestock corrals of an imaginary Luo man as well as the homes of each of his three wives and his eldest son. Through signs and taped programs in both Luo and English, the exhibition also explains the origins of the Luo people, their migration to western Kenya, traditional healing plants, and the process of establishing a new home.

covers a large area of swampland and is a breeding ground for herons, storks, cormorants, and egrets. The best time to visit is April or May.The Kisumu Impala Sanctuary is 0.4 square miles in size and is one of Kenya's smallest wildlife preserves. As its name suggests, it is home to herds of impala. Hippos, as well as many reptiles and birds, are also present. Several baboons and leopards, which faced difficulties of some sort in the wild, are held in cages here.Hippo Point is a 600-acre viewing area on Lake Victoria. Despite its name, it is better known as a viewing point for its unobstructed sunsets over the lake than for its occasional hippos. The point is near the village of Dunga, a few kilometres southwest of the town. The village also has a fishing port and a camping site.

Attractions in Kisumu include: Kibuye Market, The Kisumu Museum,  Impala sanctuary,  Bird sanctuary, Hippo Point,The nearby  Ndere Island National Park, Kit Mikaye-an impressive  tourist site-is a large rock with three rocks on top and is located off Kisumu Busia Road towards Bondo. It is a weeping rock: It is believed that Mikaye ("first wife") went up the hill to the stones when her husband took a second wife and has been weeping ever since!

Kisumu is one of the older of the upcountry municipalities. It is the historic western terminus of the railroad from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria. The railroad line was completed in 1901, and the first train steamed into Port Florence station in 1903. Several years before that it became Kenya's first port on Lake Victoria, when a steamship was hauled to the lake and assembled in 1895. By the 1930s and 1940s, Kisumu had become a leading East African center for investment, administration and the military.
Kisumu's rise in growth and prosperity stalled temporarily beginning in 1977, with the collapse of the East African Community, but has recently been returning with the reformation of the community in 1996 and with its designation as a "city." The port has been stimulated by the rejuvenation of international business and trade, as well as by the shipments of goods destined for Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and covers 67,483 sq km. The lake is not part of the rift valley system and, at only 100 meter deep, is very wide and shallow compared to other bodies of water. Lake Victoria acts as a boundary between Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, yet international water travel between the countries is no longer possible. The only lake excursions available occur between Kisumu and ports farther south. Kenya actually owns only a tiny 3,785 sq km corner of the lake.
 The lake attracted great interest from Europeans after its discovery. In 1858, John Hanning Speke was the first European to cite the vast lake as the source of the White Nile. The assertion was ridiculed until H.M. Stanley eventually proved him right in 1875. The colonial powers had hoped to open a navigable route along the Nile to the Mediterranean. Their attempts to reach Uganda across the lake were also responsible for the creation of the East African Railway and the colonization of the Kenyan Highlands.

A game reserve that is run by Kenya Wildlife Service. It is next to the Turkwell Dam, where the water of the Turkwell River has been harnessed to provide electricity. It is in itself an attraction and a guided tour of the facility can be arranged with the concerned authority.

Thimlich Ohinga in Migori District is an Archeological fortress built by the Luo back in 15 th Century to protect them and their livestock from marauding enemies. The fortress measures some 150m in diameter and contains other five smaller “Ohingas” (fortresses). The walls round the fortress measure 3m tall and 1.5m thick. Small entrances placed strategically around the fortress are capable of allowing only one person at a time and were guarded from a watch tower.

Is an ancient Luhya custom which is still being practiced at Shinyalu unlike the bullfight of Spain and Mexico where bull contest with people (matadors) the bulls here fight against other bulls. The bull belongs to individual who in turn belong to a village. The villagers will escort their bull with singing and dancing up to the arena. This is after an all night of preparing the bulls through exhortation, praises and endearment, which they believe the bull fully understand. The meeting of the bulls in the field is electrifying. The community sings and dances their famous Isikhuti as they cheer their bull. The bull that is defeated runs for it, Often going through a crowd of people amid laughter and derision.The victorious bull is escorted with garlands by its proud villagers. It is a fun event which provides great entertainment.

 

Form a lofty rim above the Kerio Valley. The average altitude is 2127m above sea level and is thehome of Kenya’s long distance runners. The altitude combined with the steep valleys provide a rich training ground for the local children on their way to and from school. Through the years, they develop a strong physique and constitution for forbearance in long distance running. High altitude training schools have been developed for local and international individual who wish to acclimatize to high altitude training.

Cherengani Hills offer just as magnificent scenery. They extend to Kapenguria and Ortum to the Marich Pass, a hair-raising drop from the high plateau onward to Nasolot and on to Lake Turkana.

 

As scenery goes in Kenya, the Tugen Hills are outstanding. The road from Kabarnet snakes eastwards through the various bend over the hills to the town of Kipsarman which stands at the very edge of the precipice. The view of lakes Baringo, Lake Bogoria and Kenya’s brand new little lake, ‘ Lake Chertet’ is stunning. The far Loroki Plateau, Poror Hills and the extensive Kerio Valley can be seen with the naked eye atop these interesting Hills.While appreciating the scenery above what awaits you below is even more interesting. The outcrop of Lukeino formation dazzles red and bare. This is the home of Kenya’s atest hominid fossil, Orrorin Tugenesis, commonly known as the ‘Millennium Man’ since it was discovered in the year 2000. The Kipsaraman Museum, which is a community museum houses the exhibits of this creature, among other finding from the area. The hill sides boast several caves waiting to be properly explored. The hot springs at Bartolimo are nature at its best, fresh water springs emitting both hot and cold water which mix in a natural stone depression to form a natural stone tub.
Toward the west, the road follows the same circuitous bends through Sacho and other minor towns to Eldama Ravine down below.

A Volcanic mountain which straddles the Uganda/ Kenya border at a height of 4253 m above sea level.It is National Park run by Kenya wildlife Service. Mt. Elgon has some interesting caves, the best known being the Kitum cave where elephants excavate the walls for its rich mineral deposits.

Kisii Soapstone is a unique rock found in only one place in the world, Kisii. The finest deposits are found in Nyamarambe Division. There is an estimated 10 million ton of stone deposits at Tabaka, Gotichaki, Nyabigena and Itumbe Hills. This stone has been utilised for artistic, decorative and functional products since time immemorial as seen from pre-historic remains on rock at Sameta, Moma etc.

The stones occur naturally in various colours and Gusii ancestors used its powder for body shields, wall painting, traditional ceremonies and rituals. The little town of Tabaka and the surrounding country side supplies the entire world with quality carving made from this magical stone. The 7 tonne-“Enyamuchera “(Bird of Peace) soapstone carving at UNESCO headquarter in Paris was made locally in this area by one Elkana Ongesa. The easiest way to reach Tabaka is to approach from Kisii town. The turn- off to Tabaka is on the Kisii- Rongo main road. Tabaka is approximately 4.5 km from the turn off.

The most interesting of these are those found in Seme, Kit Mikayi being the mother of all. Kit Mikayi Literally Means “ the rock of the first Wife “. In Luo folklore, there lived once a woman whose name was Aber and whose husband’s name was Onam. They lived together in love and harmony for many years. Onam however married a second wife to whom he lavished all his love and attention leaving Aber dejected and unloved. She eventually pined away and died in misery. She was buried where the rock now stands. One day there was a violent storm
accompanied by earth movement which ripped the earth and threw out the bones of Aber from the ground. It killed all the members of Onam’s family and transformed them into rocks.

The weeping stone is another interesting rock. It is found in Khayega near Kakamega. It is about 40m with a small rock perched on top. It is an acid plutonic rock consisting mainly in quarts, alkali, feldspar and Mica. It is an imposing feature especially when you get near it. Its most outstanding feature is the water that runs down its structure ‘head to toe’. It looks like gowned figure in perpetual tears. Many other such rocks are found in Nyangori and Vihiga, all subjects of myth and folklore.

Ndere Island National Park is just a short distance from Kit Mikayi. The park is just off the northern shore of Lake Victoria and is home to the lesser known spotted crocodiles, monitor lizards, birds and water antelopes. A visit to the famous Kit Mikayi rock will give you insight to the Luo community. The rock, which in Luo dialect means “the stone of the first wife”, is associated with Luo legendary stories and myths.This is one of the parks where people are permitted to walk on clearly marked trails. It is just a few kilometers from Kisumu town (approx. 40km west). This island is home to lesser known spotted crocodiles, impalas, a variety of birds including fish eagles and a dense population of swifts. Activities include hiking, nature walks, and optional boat safaris at a cost. The tour also includes a visit to kit mikayi, which according to Luo folklore has immense traditional ties to Ndere Island NP. The tour returns to Kisumu by sundown.

 

CLIMATE:
Kakamega Forest is a living remnant from the Pleistocene period (15,000) years ago when great climate changed occurred throughout the world. During that period there was increased rainfall which resulted in the great forest of west and central Africa extending all the way to Kenya. Then the rainfall pattern changed about 10,000 years ago and the climate became drier and forest cover shrank considerably due to human activity. The Kakamega Forest that remains today is part of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest. The kakamega forest covers the area of 240 sq. Km at an altitude of 1,500- 1,700m above sea level. The area enjoys some of the highest rainfall in the country with annual precipitation being 2000mm which falls between April and November. Like other rainforest, rain falls mostly in the afternoon and is accompanied by heavy thunderstorms.The dominant tribe living immediately around the forest is the Luhya (a word meaning ‘on higher ground’)

FAUNA AND FLORA:
The unique diversity of the forest derives from the great equatorial forest. The neighboring montane forests of the Rift escarpment have further enriched the diversity creating a biological resource totally unique to the area. There are almost 150 species of woody trees, shrubs and vines, 90 dicotyledonous herbs, 80 monocotyledonous herbs and a further 62 species of ferns. Of these, 50 species are used by local people for medicinal purposes.

There are over 330 species of birds; some of them include the Great Blue Turaco, a rally magnificent bird, as well as the black and White Casqued Hornbill, Grey Parrot, White Breasted Negrofinch etc.The other fauna includes bush pigs, clawless otter, marsh mongoose and the Giant Water Shrew. The latter is the only Kenyan home of this rare aquatic animal. The primates include the Black and White Colubus, the de Brazza monkey, also known as the swamp monkey, red tailed monkey, Olive baboons and the Potto, which is small short-tailed large eyed and nocturnal.

The snakes include the Forest Cobra, Black lipped Cobra, Jameson’s Mamba, Bush Viper, Gaboon Viper, Rhinoceros-horned viper and Gold’s Cobra living in the tree canopy. Butterflies are prolific in the forest, with the Regal Swallowtail being one of the largest and the Black-tipped Diadem being one of the most beautiful. The butterflies are as unique as the other species occupying this forest and a traveler is encouraged to take time to enjoy this abundance of nature which is only found in this area. The detailed official guide will provide more details on the species of flora and fauna as well as the interesting areas to visit.

The fabled source of the Nile is the second largest fresh Water Lake in the World. It extends 69,000 sq Km with a depth of 82mts . Kenya only enjoys 6% of the Lake, while the rest is shared between Uganda and Tanzania. At least 60% of the water that flows in to the lake is from Kenya’s Highlands.The lake is dotted by interesting Island which are quite popular with tourists. Rusinga Island,Mfangano and Takawiri each have unique attraction which includes the Rock painting of Mfangano,the Tom Mboya Mausoleum at Rusinga and the white beaches of Takawiri. The area surrounding these Islands provided the best fishing ground in Kenya side of the Lake. Ndere Island is the gazette protected park run by Kenya Wildlife Service.