78-627: Kisumu ( / k iː ˈ s uː m uː / kee- SOO -moo ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province . It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The metro region, including Maseno and Ahero, has a population of 1,155,574 people (560,942 males, 594,609 females and 23 intersex) according to
156-694: A Hindu temple The term used to refer to a native of Kisumu is jakisumo (plural, jokisumo ). Notable jokisumo include The city has "Friendship" status with Cheltenham , in the United Kingdom. Kisumu's sister cities are Roanoke, Virginia and Boulder, Colorado , in the United States. List of cities and towns in Kenya by population The following is a list of the most populous cities , municipalities and towns of Kenya . In Kenya there are only five incorporated cities including
234-539: A 970-kilometre (600 mi) ox-cart track from Mombasa to Busia in Kenya, in 1890. In July 1890, Britain was party to a series of anti-slavery measures agreed at the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 . In December 1890, a letter from the Foreign Office to the treasury proposed constructing a railway from Mombasa to Uganda to disrupt the traffic of slaves from its source in the interior to
312-417: A contract for three years at twelve rupees per month with free rations and return passage to their place of enlistment. They received half-pay when in hospital and free medical attendance. Recruitment continued between December 1895 and March 1901, and the first coolies began to return to India after their contracts ended in 1899. 2,493 workers died during the construction of the railway between 1895 and 1903 at
390-526: A factual account by Patterson 's 1907 autobiographical book The Man-eaters of Tsavo . They are part of the plot of the 1956 film Beyond Mombasa , The Ghost and the Darkness in 1996, and Chander Pahar , a 2013 Bengali movie based on the 1937 novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay . Several other films have featured the Uganda Railway, including Bwana Devil , made in 1952. In addition,
468-531: A modern port at Kilindini Harbour in Mombasa. The railway was a huge logistical achievement and became strategically and economically vital for both Uganda and Kenya. It helped to suppress slavery , by removing the need for humans in the transport of goods. In August 1895, a bill was introduced at Westminster , becoming the Uganda Railway Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c. 38), which authorised
546-487: A new name, Port Florence. By February 1903, the railway line had been opened for goods and passenger transportation. Kisumu was also privileged to host the first flight in Kenya; the current police workshop was the first hangar in Kenya . Before the jet airline era, the city was a landing point on the British flying boat passenger and mail route from Southampton to Cape Town . Kisumu also linked Port Bell to Nairobi. In
624-521: A plague broke out in India, seriously delaying the advancement of the railway. The Government of India only permitted recruitment and emigration to resume on the creation of a quarantine camp at Budapore, financed by the Uganda Railway, and where recruits were required to spend fourteen days in quarantine before departure. A total of 35,729 coolies and artisans were recruited along with 1,082 subordinate officers, totalling 36,811 persons. Each coolie signed
702-552: A rate of 357 annually. While most of the surviving Indians returned home, 6,724 decided to remain after the line's completion, creating a community of Indians in East Africa . To maintain law and order, the railway instituted a police department. The force was uniformed and drilled and armed with Martini-Henry rifles. The force was composed of Indians and two officers were lent by the Indian government to drill and superintend
780-546: A result of the collapse of the East African Community . However, the city spurred with the reformation of the community in 1996 and with its designation as a "city". The port has been stimulated by the transformation of international business and trade, as well as the shipments of goods destined for Uganda, Tanzania , Burundi , Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo . Currently, Kisumu
858-536: A route across Lake Kyoga and down the Victoria Nile to Pakwach at the head of the Albert Nile . Its Lake Victoria ships were unsuitable for river work so it introduced the stern wheel paddle steamers PS Speke (1910) and PS Stanley (1913) for the new service. In the 1920s the company added PS Grant (1925) and the side wheel paddle steamer PS Lugard (1927). As
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#1732773043160936-421: A senior South African military officer, Major General Dan Pienaar , crashed on 19 December 1942, killing all 12 persons on board. The other two crashes involved Douglas C-47 planes; the first on 11 May 1945 (one fatality) and the second exactly three months later, on 11 July 1945 (28 fatalities). The bodies from the two earlier accidents were repatriated to South Africa, those from the third accident are buried in
1014-593: A series of mergers and splits, the line is now in the hands of the Kenya Railways Corporation and the Uganda Railways Corporation . The official approach, British and local, to both slavery and free porter labour included a genuine belief that the man doing the work had real interests which deserved concern and protection. No such concern was evident among parliamentarians, missionaries or administrators for those at work on
1092-408: A series of outdoor pavilions laid out in a formation similar to that of a Luo homestead. Some of the pavilions contain live animals. For example, one pavilion contains numerous aquaria with a wide variety of fish from Lake Victoria , along with explanatory posters. Another pavilion contains a terrarium containing mambas , spitting cobras , puff adders and other venomous Kenyan snakes. Outside,
1170-536: A tall town clock stands in the middle of the road. It was unveiled on 19 August 1938 by the then Governor of Kenya Sir Robert Brooke-Popham . The town clock was built in memory of Kassim Lakha, who arrived in East Africa in 1871 and died in Kampala in 1910. It was erected by his sons Mohamed, Alibhai, Hassan and Rahimtulla Kassim, as the inscription on the Town Clock reads. Kisumu Museum, established in 1980, has
1248-413: Is 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) gauge and virtually all single-track with passing loops at stations. 200,000 individual 9-metre (30 ft) rail-lengths and 1.2 million sleepers , 200,000 fish-plates , 400,000 fish-bolts and 4.8 million steel keys plus steel girders for viaducts and causeways had to be imported from India, necessitating the creation of
1326-668: Is subsistence agriculture , leading to relatively low production volumes. Current crop yields are considered to be significantly lower than the potential afforded by soil and climate conditions. Current low land utilisation and yields are driven by the lack of guaranteed markets and associated support services. Like agriculture, livestock farming is currently performed primarily on a subsistence basis. Cattle are predominantly indigenous breeds with lower milk output than grade cattle. The Kenyan part of Lake Victoria covers approximately 400,000 hectares (4,100 square kilometres), with 550 kilometres (342 mi) of lake shoreline; most of this shoreline
1404-413: Is 22.9°C. Kisumu has highly fertile land and variations in temperature and rainfall with two rainy seasons per year across the region provide a suitable environment for a broad range of agricultural crops. The Kisumu region has approximately 1.6 million hectares of agricultural land. However, it is estimated that only 58 percent of the land is currently used. The majority of farming in the lake basin region
1482-405: Is 24 km (15 mi) south of the equator and has, due to its elevation, moderate temperatures. The metropolitan region comprises the city and its suburbs and satellite towns of Maseno , Kondele, and Ahero . When Europeans first settled in the area in the late 19th century, Kisumu became a trading post – attracting Luo people from as far as Migori and Siaya County . The Kisumu region
1560-450: Is home to a herd of impala, some hippos, and many reptiles and birds. Additionally, several baboons (monkeys) and leopards who faced difficulties in the wild are housed in cages. Over 115 different species of birds live there. Hippo Point is a 240 ha (590 acres) 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 . Hippo Point
1638-439: Is its object no brain can suppose, Where it will start from no one can guess, Where it is going to nobody knows, What is the use of it, none can conjecture, What it will carry, there is none can define, And in spite of George Curzon 's superior lecture, It is clearly naught but a lunatic line. Political resistance to this "gigantic folly", as Henry Labouchère called it, surfaced immediately. Such arguments along with
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#17327730431601716-522: Is located near the village of Dunga, a few kilometres southwest of the city. The village also has a fishing port and a camping site. Kit Mikayi , a large rock with three rocks on top, is located off Kisumu Bondo Road towards Bondo . Kit-mikayi means "Stones of the first wife" or "First Wife Rocks" in Dholuo , the Luo language. It is a weeping rock; it is believed that Mikayi (literally, "the first wife") went up
1794-438: Is more than £170 million in 2005 money, and £5.5 million or £650 million in 2016 money by another source. Because of the wooden trestle bridges , enormous chasms , prohibitive cost, hostile tribes, men infected by the hundreds by diseases, and man-eating lions pulling railway workers out of carriages at night, the name "Lunatic Line" certainly seemed to fit. Winston Churchill , who regarded it "a brilliant conception", said of
1872-463: Is one of the fastest-growing cities in Kenya. It is thriving with the sugar and rice irrigation industries, whose contribution to the national economy is immense due to its natural resources and as the epicentre for business in Kenya. English is one of two official languages of Kenya, the other being Kiswahili . Most people in Kisumu are trilingual and are also fluent in Dholuo , the local language of
1950-580: Is represented in the nationwide rugby league by Kisumu RFC. The city is also host to a leg of the national rugby sevens circuit, one of only six city hosts. The Kisumu leg is referred to as the Dala sevens and the annual tournament attracts thousands of fans from across the country. Kisumu is represented in the Kenya Basketball Federation League by Kisumu Lakeside which plays its home games at Jomo Kenyatta Sports Grounds. Before
2028-524: Is still used to transport passengers between the new SGR Nairobi Terminus and the old metre-gauge train station in Nairobi city centre. Research has shown that expectations and hopes for the transformations that the Uganda railway would bring about are similar to contemporary visions about the changes that would happen once East Africa became connected to high-speed fibre-optic broadband. A documentary on
2106-500: 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
2184-500: Is under-used. Attractions in the city include Kibuye Market, Oile Market, the Kisumu Museum, an impala sanctuary, a bird sanctuary , Hippo Point, shopping malls and the nearby Kit Mikaye and Ndere Island National Park . Although Kisumu has modernized over the years, it still maintains an old town feel, especially on the outskirts, and the culture is still very ingrained. On the main street of Kisumu city, Oginga Odinga Road,
2262-777: The East African Railways Corporation , which added the line from Kampala to Kasese in western Uganda in 1956. and extended to it to Arua near the border with Zaïre in 1964. Almost from its inception the Uganda Railway developed shipping services on Lake Victoria . In 1898 it launched the 110 ton SS William Mackinnon at Kisumu, having assembled the vessel from a "knock down" kit supplied by Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Scotland. A succession of further Bow, McLachlan & Co. "knock down" kits followed. The 662 ton sister ships SS Winifred and SS Sybil (1902 and 1903),
2340-483: The Luo , Kenya's fourth-largest ethnic group, to which 90% of Kisumu residents belong. Due to its growth since the advent of devolution , there has been a recent increase in other local ethnic groups within the city. Kisumu features a tropical rainforest climate with no true dry season and significant rainfall year-round. January is the driest month while the month of April receives the most rainfall. The average temperature
2418-609: The United Nations , Kisumu 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's elevation is 1,131 m (3,711 ft) and is about 320 km (200 mi) northwest of Nairobi, on 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
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2496-465: The jet airline era, Kisumu was a landing point on the British flying boat passenger and mail route from Southampton to Cape Town. Kisumu linked Port Bell and Nairobi. Kisumu is served by Kisumu International Airport which has international status, with regular daily flights to Nairobi and Mombasa. Expansion of the airport cargo facility after completion of the passenger terminals is currently going on in anticipation of increased trade brought about by
2574-482: The 1,134 ton SS Clement Hill (1907) and the 1,300 ton sister ships SS Rusinga and SS Usoga (1914 and 1915) were combined passenger and cargo ferries. The 812 ton SS Nyanza (launched after Clement Hill ) was purely a cargo ship . The 228 ton SS Kavirondo launched in 1913 was a tugboat . Two more tugboats from Bow, McLachlan were added in 1925: SS Buganda and SS Buvuma . The company extended its steamer service with
2652-500: The 1960s the population of Asians in relation to locals was significantly higher. The town was elevated to the status of a municipal board in 1940 and later to a municipal council in 1960. In the early sixties, very little development took place in Kisumu, with an acute shortage in housing, shops and offices. The situation was made worse by the influx of locals into the town following the declaration of independence in 1963. The city's growth and prosperity slowed down temporarily in 1977, as
2730-515: The 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census which was conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics . Apart from being an important political city, it is one of the premier industrial and commercial centres in Kenya. It is also an intellectual city with many PhDs. The city is currently undergoing an urban rejuvenation of the downtown and lower town which includes modernizing the lake front, decongesting main streets, and making
2808-608: The Fisheries Department). In October 1900, the 62-ton ship SS William Mackinnon was reassembled and registered in Kisumu, and made its maiden voyage to Entebbe , marking the beginning of the Lake Marine Services. The SS Winifred (1901) and the SS Sybil (1901) were later added to the fleet in 1902 and 1904, respectively. On Friday, 20 December 1901, the railway line reached the Kisumu pier, adopting
2886-427: The Kisumu war-graves cemetery. The cause of the accidents is currently thought to have been the katabatic wind condition which often affects Kisumu in the early morning. Two serious railway accidents occurred near Kisumu in the 2000s. The first took place outside Kisumu on 15 August 2000. The brakes on the train failed, causing it to roll. Thirteen people were killed and 37 received injuries. The second took place on
2964-488: The Olympic Champions from Paris, France. Two of the five cities, Nairobi and Mombasa, are cities whose county borders run the same as their city limits, so in a way they could be thought of as city-counties. Apart from these five cities, there are numerous municipalities and towns with significant urban populations. The list: The municipalities of Ruiru , Kikuyu, Thika , Mavoko , and Ngong which feature on
3042-594: The Ugandan capital Kampala to the frontier and onwards to the existing Kenyan metre gauge railway past Kisumu found funding from the African Development Bank in 2022. Former president Mwai Kibaki launched a Ksh. 6.8 billion road project for a major overhaul of Kisumu's road network on 24 July 2009. The city is connected to the cities of Nakuru , Nairobi and Mombasa via the A104 highway and to
3120-471: The Ugandan capital and the open sea at Mombasa, more than 1,400 km (900 mi) away. Branch lines were built to Thika in 1913, Lake Magadi in 1915, Kitale in 1926, Naro Moro in 1927 and from Tororo to Soroti in 1929. In 1929 the Uganda Railway became Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (KURH), which in 1931 completed a branch line to Mount Kenya and extended the main line from Nakuru to Kampala in Uganda. In 1948 KURH became part of
3198-672: The area, the Maragoli were already trading with other people in the area like the Nandi and the Maasai. Some Luo words were acquired from the Maragoli. Kisumu City is believed to be one of the oldest settlements in Kenya with historical records indicating that Kisumu was dominated by diverse communities at different times long before Europeans arrived. The people from the Nandi, Kalenjin , Kisii , Maasai , Luo and Luhya communities converged at
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3276-590: The basic layout of the new town on the southern ridge. This was followed by the construction of a number of government buildings, notably the former Provincial Commissioner's Office (now State Lodge) and the Old Prison (now earmarked for the construction of an Anglican cathedral). In 1903, the township boundaries were gazetted and some 4,900 ha (12,000 acres), including water, set aside for its development. The new township reverted to its original name, Kisumu, in substitution for Port Florence. At this time, there
3354-512: The capital and largest city, Nairobi , the second largest and the coastal city of Mombasa , the third largest and inland port city of Kisumu , the 4th City to get the Status of the City was Nakuru , that was upgraded from a municipality on 1 December 2021, the latest City to get this upgrade is Eldoret which was elevated on 15th August, 2024 in a colourful ceremony that happened alongside welcoming
3432-532: The city of Eldoret via the B1 highway. A 450 kilometres (280 mi) Lake Victoria ring road along the shores of the lake is currently under construction and will pass by the city. During World War II, three aircraft operated by the South African Air Force crashed into Lake Victoria soon after take-off from Kisumu Airport. The first, a Lockheed Lodestar aircraft number "K"-248 (ex ZS-ATK) carrying
3510-512: The claim that it would be a waste of taxpayers' money were easily dismissed by the Conservatives . Years before, Joseph Chamberlain had proclaimed that, if Britain were to step away from its "manifest destiny", it would by default leave it to other nations to take up the work that it would have been seen as "too weak, too poor, and too cowardly" to have done itself. Its cost has been estimated by one source at £3 million in 1894 money, which
3588-624: The coast. With steam-powered access to Uganda, the British could transport people and soldiers to ensure dominance of the African Great Lakes region. In December 1891 Captain James Macdonald began an extensive survey which lasted until November 1892. At the time there was only one caravan route across the length of the country, forcing Macdonald and his party to march 4,280 miles (6,890 km) across unknown routes with limited supplies of water or food. The survey led to
3666-495: The concept of cost-benefit analysis did not exist in public spending in the Victorian Era , the huge capital sums of the project nevertheless made many sceptical of the value of the investment. This, coupled with the fatalities and wastage of the personnel constructing it through disease, tribal activity, and hostile wildlife led the Uganda Railway to be dubbed a Lunatic Line : What it will cost no words can express, What
3744-593: The construction of a railway from Mombasa to the shores of Lake Victoria. The man tasked with building the railway was George Whitehouse , an experienced civil engineer who had worked across the British Empire . Whitehouse acted as the Chief Engineer between 1895 and 1903, also serving as the railway's manager from its opening in 1901. The consulting engineers were Sir Alexander Rendel of Sir A. Rendel & Son and Frederick Ewart Robertson. Nearly all
3822-587: The construction of the Uganda Railway. It was decided to build the railway as quickly as possible; its construction was viewed almost as a military attack—casualties were inevitable and might be large if the objective were to be attained and momentum not lost. —Anthony Clayton & Donald C. Savage Before the railway's construction, the Imperial British East Africa Company had begun the Mackinnon-Sclater road ,
3900-562: The construction of the line, The Permanent Way , was made in 1961. John Halkin's 1968 novel, Kenya , focuses on the construction of the railway and its defence during the First World War. The construction also serves as the backdrop to the novel Dance of the Jakaranda (Akashic Books, 2017) by Peter Kimani, and appears early in the novel A History of Burning by Janika Oza (2023). The Tsavo man-eating lions at Tsavo feature in
3978-529: The delta of the Nzoia River . Kisumu was ideally located on the shores of Lake Victoria at the cusp of the Winam Gulf , at the end of the caravan trail from Pemba , Mombasa, and Malindi and had the potential for connections to the whole of the Lake region via steam ships. In July 1899, the first skeleton plan for Kisumu was prepared. This included landing places and wharves along the northern lakeshore, near
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#17327730431604056-469: The first general map of the region. The Uganda Railway was named after its ultimate destination, for its entire original 1,060-kilometre (660 mi) length actually lay in what would become Kenya . Construction began at the port city of Mombasa in British East Africa in 1896 and finished at the line's terminus, Kisumu , on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria , in 1901. The railway
4134-470: The force. A maximum of 400 constables were recruited, and the force was handed over to the Protectorate government on completion of the railway. At the turn of the 20th century, the railway construction was disturbed by the resistance by Nandi people led by Koitalel Arap Samoei . He was killed in 1905 by Richard Meinertzhagen , ending the Nandi resistance. The incidents for which the building of
4212-741: The hill to the stones when her husband took a second wife and has been weeping ever since. It has become a local pilgrimage site for adherents of the Legio Maria sect who, come to the rock to pray and fast for several weeks at a time. Ndere Island is a small island 4.2 square kilometres (1.6 sq mi) in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria. It was gazetted as the Ndere Island National Reserve in November 1986 and has since been uninhabited. It has sweeping views over
4290-686: The journey. The last metre-gauge train between Mombasa and Nairobi made its run on 28 April 2017. The line between Nairobi and Kisumu near the Kenya–Uganda border has been closed since 2012. From 2014 to 2016, the China Road and Bridge Corporation built the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) parallel to the original Uganda Railway. Passenger service on the SGR was inaugurated on 31 May 2017. The metre-gauge railway
4368-521: The lake in a much more serene and tranquil environment than the mainland. Moi Stadium plays home to various teams such as the Kisumu All Stars and Kisumu Telkom FC. Peter Anyang' Nyong'o , the governor and father of Hollywood star Lupita Nyong'o , announced that the county will build a brand new stadium. At the same time, the country's current government has plans to build a national stadium. As of 2018, neither plan has materialized. Kisumu
4446-500: The lake of salt to the lands of the Great Lake to quench its thirst.." Disassembled ferries were shipped from Scotland by sea to Mombasa and then by rail to Kisumu where they were reassembled and provided a service to Port Bell and, later, other ports on Lake Victoria ( see section below ). An 11-kilometre (7 mi) rail line between Port Bell and Kampala was the final link in the chain providing efficient transport between
4524-470: The line to start his world-famous safari in 1909: The railroad, the embodiment of the eager, masterful, materialistic civilization of today, was pushed through a region in which nature, both as regards wild man and wild beast, does not differ materially from what it was in Europe in the late Pleistocene . Passengers were invited to ride a platform on the front of the locomotive from which they might see
4602-640: The main focuses in the centre are promoting eco-cultural tourism and facilitating the conservation of the Dunga Papyrus Wetland Ecosystem. Kisumu is the location of the Kisumu Impala Sanctuary . During British rule, the Impala Park sanctuary was called Connaught Parade. Measuring just 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi), the sanctuary is one of Kenya's smallest wildlife preserves. As its name suggests, it
4680-510: The meantime, it was realised that the site originally chosen for the township north of the Nyanza Gulf was unsuitable for the town's expansion, due to its flat topography and poor soils. An alternative site was therefore identified and the town's location moved to the ridge on the southern shore of the Gulf, where the town is today. Consequently, another plan was prepared in 1902, which provided
4758-462: The morning of 16 October 2005, when a matatu (taxi minibus) was struck by a passenger train. Six people died and 23 more were injured. After that there have been accidents in its major towns with notable black spots: Ojola/Kisian , Kisat bridge , Ahero , Sondu , Awasi just to mention a few. The Busia-Kisumu highway is becoming increasingly congested, posing risks to road users. The County Government of Kisumu has been urged to consider dualizing
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#17327730431604836-501: The museum has a few additional exhibits, including a snake pit and a crocodile container. Other pavilions show weaponry, jewellery, farm tools and other artefacts of the various peoples of Nyanza Province . Additionally, there are exhibits of stuffed animals, birds and fish. 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
4914-618: The only modern means of transport from the East African coast to the higher plateaus of the interior, a ride on the Uganda Railway became an essential overture to the safari adventures which grew in popularity in the first two decades of the 20th century. As a result, it usually featured prominently in the accounts written by travelers in British East Africa. The rail journey stirred many a romantic passage, like this one from former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt , who rode
4992-494: The passing game herds more closely. During Roosevelt's journey, he claimed that "on this, except at mealtime, I spent most of the hours of daylight." After independence, the railways in Kenya and Uganda fell into disrepair. In summer 2016, a reporter for The Economist magazine took the Lunatic Express from Nairobi to Mombasa. He found the railway to be in poor condition, departing 7 hours late and taking 24 hours for
5070-468: The present-day Airport Road. Demarcations for government buildings and retail shops were also included in the plan. Another plan was later prepared in May 1900, when plots were allocated to a few European firms as well as to Indian traders who had travelled to Kisumu on contracts to build the Uganda Railway and had decided to settle at the expanding terminus. A later plan included a flying boat jetty (now used by
5148-511: The process of establishing a new home. Dunga Beach and Wetland is known for its biodiversity and its cultural rich and diverse papyrus wetland ecosystem and local community respectively. Ecofinder Kenya has established Dunga Wetland Pedagogical Centre at Dunga Beach, a grass-roots led intervention whose cardinal goal is the empowerment of the Dunga Wetland community and improvement of the livelihood security of its people. Therefore, some of
5226-626: The project: "The British art of 'muddling through' is here seen in one of its finest expositions. Through everything—through the forests, through the ravines, through troops of marauding lions, through famine, through war, through five years of excoriating Parliamentary debate, muddled and marched the railway." The modern term Lunatic Express was coined by Charles Miller in his 1971 The Lunatic Express: An Entertainment in Imperialism . The term The Iron Snake comes from an old Nandi prophecy by Orkoiyot Kimnyolei: "An iron snake will cross from
5304-594: The railway may be most noted are the killings of a number of construction workers in 1898, during the building of a bridge across the Tsavo River . Hunting mainly at night, a pair of maneless male lions stalked and killed at least 28 Indian and African workers – although some accounts put the number of victims as high as 135. The Uganda Railway faced a great deal of criticism in Parliament, with many parliamentarians decrying it as exorbitantly expensive . Whilst
5382-625: The recreated East African Community of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Lake Victoria ferries have operated from the port linking the railway to Mwanza and Bukoba in Tanzania, and to Entebbe, Port Bell, and Jinja in Uganda. The first steamships built in Kisumu in 1905 were the SS Sybilla and the SS Nyanza . The Uganda Railway from the port of Mombasa reached Kisumu in 1901. Until 2013 passenger trains operate between Nairobi and Kisumu using
5460-417: The revamped meter gauge rail run by the defunct Rift Valley Railways . A standard gauge railway from Nairobi to Naivasha was opened up to Suswa in 2019. A second section of 262 kilometres (163 mi) should have brought the standard gauge to Kisumu, a new station and a port on Lake Victoria being planned. The plans not materialising due to lack of funding, a project to rebuild the metre gauge line from
5538-750: The roads to prevent accidents that have claimed numerous lives and caused lasting physical and psychological harm to motorists and pedestrians. Kisumu has a variety of schools to choose from, both public and private, including: Kisumu is home to many universities and colleges: Among the places of worship , they are predominantly Christian churches and temples : Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu ( Catholic Church ),Jesus celebration centre(JCC international) Anglican Church of Kenya ( Anglican Communion ),((Citam Church Kisumu)) Presbyterian Church of East Africa ( World Communion of Reformed Churches ), Baptist Convention of Kenya ( Baptist World Alliance ), Assemblies of God . There are also Muslim mosques and
5616-464: The streets pedestrian-friendly. Culturally, Kisumu serves as the centre of the Luo people of East Africa . It was the most prominent urban centre in the pre-colonial and post-colonial period. It remains prominent in the modern era for natives of the Kavirondo region. It was briefly renamed Port Florence , before its name was reverted back. The city serves as the capital of Kisumu County and
5694-471: The tip of Lake Victoria and called the place "sumo" which literally means a place of barter trade . Each community called it different names, for instance: Kisumu was identified by the British explorers in early 1898 as an alternative railway terminus and port for the Uganda Railway , then under construction. It was to replace Port Victoria , then an important centre on the caravan trade route, near
5772-655: The top 10 list of the most populated towns in Kenya also fall within the Nairobi Metropolitan region. Data for the largest urban centers in Kenya was provided under the Kenya Population Census of 2019. Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After
5850-712: The workers involved on the construction of the line came from British India . An agent was appointed in Karachi responsible for recruiting coolies, artisans and subordinate officers and a branch office was located in Lahore , the principal recruiting centre. Workers were sourced from villages in the Punjab and sent to Karachi on specially chartered steamers belonging to the British India Steam Navigation Company . Shortly after recruitment began,
5928-435: Was an 'Old Kisumu' that consisted of two rows of stalls (Dukas) on Mumias Road, north of the Gulf. It was demolished in the twenties when new plots became available on Odera and Ogada Streets in the present-day Kisumu, hence the new area acquired the name 'New Bazaar'. Winston Churchill visited Kisumu in 1907. By the 1930s and 40s, the city had become a leading centre for commerce, administrative and military installations. In
6006-408: Was the immediate former capital of now-defunct Nyanza Province . It 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 regions. Kisumu International Airport has regular flights to Nairobi and other neighbouring cities such as Mombasa . According to
6084-519: Was then occupied by the Luo community. A person going to Kisumu at that time would say, "Adhi Kisuma" to mean I'm going to trade. Derived from the word "Kisuma", the word for a trading post in Luo is "Kisumo", and in Nandi , "Kesumett". The current name Kisumu is an English corruption of the word "Kisumo" or "Kesumett". An opposing theory states that Kisumu acquired its name from 'Kusuma', the Maragoli word for 'trading'. Because, before Luo arrived in
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