Kisumu City Development Strategy
Historical Background
Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya, is the headquarters of Kisumu District, as well as Nyanza Province respectively. It has developed progressively from a railway terminus and internal port in 1901, to become the leading commercial, trading, industrial, communication and administrative center in the Lake Victoria basin, an area that traverses the three provinces of Nyanza, Western and western Rift Valley. In addition, Kisumu serves as the communication and trading confluence for the Great Lakes region - Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
The city has recently been declared the first UN Millenium City in the world by the UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan.
Vision
The vision of the citizens of Kisumu is to revamp the identity of Kisumu as the principal transport, communication and commercial hub of the Great Lakes region, while strengthening the service coverage and delivery capacities.
Kisumu CDS Process
The Kisumu City Development Strategy is, substantively, the result of rigorous stakeholders consultations that were carried out with the citizens of Kisumu over a period of 2 years. It captures their perspectives on the current and desired socio-economic development.
The strategy upholds the principles of increased productivity, equity and access, good governance and sustainability. The CDS has further been enriched by the incorporation of relevant ongoing development processes such as those embedded within the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plans (LASDAP). Regional considerations have been introduced through experiences of Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) in which Kisumu plays a central role, and other interventions through the Swedish Lake Victoria Initiative. Furthermore, the active involvement of the communities within Kisumu in developing the National Vision and Strategy for Management and Development of Lake Victoria Basin contributed invaluably to the enrichment of the Kisumu CDS.
The Kisumu City Development Strategy is an effort by the citizens of Kisumu through coordination of the Kisumu City Council to assemble an array of strategic responses generated through consensus building and highly participatory processes broadly aimed at creating and sustaining Kisumu as a livable and highly viable City. Despite being endowed with massive potential in natural resource availability, Kisumu still registers one of the highest poverty levels in Kenya exacerbated by a rapidly growing informal sector against a backdrop of collapsing or retrogressing private sector growth. Infrastructure development and service expansion has not matched the rapid population growth registered in Kisumu, providing a great challenge to the city authority. Furthermore, the urban community has largely felt detached from the main frame of development activities in the City, admittedly as a result of limited information flow and to some reasonable extent, inherent perception on the traditional role of the local authority
The manifestation and consequences of these factors have been largely recognized by the citizens of Kisumu, and in response generated consensus on the strategic way forward. An additional impetus is provided by the current shift in local governance from that of sole implementers to a more facilitating role, in providing room for ‘‘grassroots” active involvement in implementation. A strong political will has provided an environment in which various strategic modes of public-private partnerships have been tested and registered marked success, increasing opportunities for development synergies.
It is against this background, and the timely support from UN-HABITAT that this document contains a presentation of the strategic development framework for Kisumu – The City Development Strategy.
Action Plans
The Kisumu CDS is being implemented through a broad stakeholders group, the Kisumu Action Team (KAT) that replaced the CDS working group but includes many former group members. The Constituency Development Fund (CDF), a fund which is primarily controlled by Members of Parliament, is funding some of the Kisumu CDS action plans.
Action Plans being implemented in Kisumu include:
1. Initiatives towards combating urban poverty. These include Kisumu Slum Upgrading Project and Street Traders Relocation Programme. A water borehole and solid waste projects are being undertaken in the slum areas while suitable land where the hawkers will be relocated have been identified and is being improved.
2. Water and Sanitation Initiatives. The newly formed Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company (KIWASCO) is undertaking a 30 kilometer water pipeline to the Manyatta area and has started community managed water connection selling points in Nyalenda.
3. Solid Waste Management. In collaboration with Equator Bottling Company who donated litter bins, the council is sensitizing the public on street cleanliness and has placed the bins at vantage points in the central business district to where the public can dump the litter. The council is also undertaking demonstration dumping sites in the neighborhoods in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The council is undertaking a bigger project to integrate solid waste management with the support of Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), which will include relocation of the landfill site and promotion of recycling initiatives.
4. Urban Transport. The council is implementing Sustainable Urban Mobility in collaboration with the University of Nairobi that will involve promotion of non-motorized urban transport lanes for both pedestrians and cyclists. The council is also reviewing bylaws on commercialized and thriving bicycle taxing, locally known as boda boda.
5. City Planning Initiatives. Installation of Geographic Information System (GIS) is in progress as well as training the council staff to operate the technology.
6. Improving Governance Initiatives. After the Working Group finalized the CDS documentation, a smaller but representative group – Kisumu Action Team (KAT) was formed to assist the council in projects implementation. The council further facilitates in information sharing and dissemination through regular newsletter publication and exhibitions that explain the council activities.
7. Health Improvement. The council has established Health Management Committees with membership also drawn from the stakeholders to manage the council health centers. In addition, a HIV/AIDS project has been launched with the support of UN-HABITAT, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Commonwealth Development Cooperation (CDC) where the stakeholders have formed committees in the neighborhood to sensitize the public on HIV/AIDS and educate the affected on practices and programmes that may help prolong their health.
Courtesy of:http://www.unhabitat.org
3 users commented in " A call for Luo diaspora to speed up development of Lakeside city of Kisumu "
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Mano kuma Kisumo dala gi mama wa ler yawa.
All us here in Scandinavia cannot wait to see when our city will be a home where luos should not be there to work for underpaid jobs but to be the investors themselves.
What is next, time for just talking should be of past and now we need prompt action to have the right constitution that will not only favour the wealthy and well connected persons in Kenya but give opportunity to all hard working citizens.
As we can be proud of our city, but still very few of the buildings are owned by luos, apart from the late Job Omino and Oyugi whose most of their properties have been sold.
Take for instant in Kiambu, most of the business and building are owned by the Kikuyus, the late Jomo-Kenyatta gave them opportunities for loans and grants from his government, while luos were in white collar jobs bragging as the wazungus who left behind by the planes.
What need to be done now is to have the Luos be more engaged in business rather too much politics.
The only open way for luos to empower themselves economically is for them to become
businessmen.Getting education in the line of setting up businesses is quickly needed among
luos wherever we are.We can be good business people as just like other kenyans.
Before and immediately after independence,many luos were successful businessmen and business women in Uganda and Tanzania.It is politics which destroyed luo businesses in both uganda and tanzania.In Uganda,Amin chased way the luo businessmen and businesswomen because of his stupid assumption that the luos were supporters of Obote.
The kenyatta government never raised a hand to save the affected luos.In this period
the luos lost all their businesses in uganda. In fact ,in tanzania when Nyerere introduced Ujamaa ideology,the luos disgreed and their businesses were taken over.
The history of being good in businesses is true and we should encourage our people to
copy what our people of 1960’s did.Let us get away of starting our own bank where loans
can be acquired by our business.It is not difficult to set a bank of our own.There are many luos with money who can do that.
Our politicians should also send the massege to luos. We must owned kisumu businesses start
with.There is no way that in kisumu our own city we just remain consumers.The youth should
not thing of formal employment since it is longer there.
Our youth should now thing of forming small groups inorder to combine their resources for business. For the proposed grouping to remain intact ,honesty must encouraged by elders to the youth.
Let every luo everywhere start away of working to together on economic ventures not just politics alone.Also we can make use of our Ker by encouraging him to pay visits to our cousins in Uganda, Congo ,and South Sudan to open up opportunity for our youth to do bisiness in those areas.
It is very possible that ker and his group can help the youth this way.We are known as good Jua Kali businesses,and this should be our base.We can help the business to expand by improving the skill and capital.This jua kali businesses can do well in uganda,congo ,and south sudan.
Our politicians can help youth to form these groups and avail business education for them.
The politicians should discourage the culture of handouts.Youth should be encourage to depend
on hard work and taking risk in businesses. We are strong and risk takers in politics ,but we
should extend this power in economic ventures for us to servive as a strong community.
Ms Achieng,i really support your idea but every luo should get involved to make this your great idea practical.Our people in general should change their attitude of negativity when it comes to business to be positive.We must use all our powers to take risk by openning businesses .
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