City Detail

Kisumu ( kee-SOO-moo) is the third-largest city in Kenya after the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa, making Kisumu the largest city in Kenya west of Nairobi. It is the third-largest city (after Kampala, Uganda and Mwanza, Tanzania) in the Lake Victoria Basin. Kisumu is not far from Kogelo, a village known for being the hometown of Barack Obama Sr., the father to the 44th president of the United States. Culturally, Kisumu serves as the headquarters of the Luo speaking people of East Africa. It was the most prominent urban centre in the pre-colonial, post-colonial, and modern era for natives of Kavirondo region. Some of the most significant political events that have shaped the trajectory Kenya have happened in Kisumu including the famous political spat between founding president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta and founding vice president Jaramogi Odinga during the opening of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in 1969.