Odera Street is located in downtown Kisumu, Kenya, slightly more than one kilometer from the Kisumu Railway Station to the Kisumu-Busia Highway. Odera Street intersects with Oginga Odinga Road, and after that intersection it continues as Kendu Lane. On the opposite side, away from Lake Victoria, Odera Street dead-ends into Mumias Street/Kisumu-Busia Road. The history... Read more »
The Nyalenda Estate [or neighborhood], one of several informal settlements that ring Kisumu, is located approximately two kilometers to the south and southeast of the Kisumu city center. This estate was established and administered by the British during the construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway. After Kenya’s independence, the administration of Nyalenda was passed on to... Read more »
Nyanza Province is one of the main administrative provinces that were created in Kenya during the colonial period. The others were Coast, Northeastern, Rift Valley, Eastern, and Central provinces. The Nyanza Province is about 12,477 square kilometers [4,817 sq. miles] in size, about the size of the state of Connecticut, and is in the southwestern... Read more »
The emergence of Maseno University as one of the top universities in Kenya is a crowning accomplishment of the education enterprise at Maseno for the last 100 years. Since at least 1906, when Maseno National School was created by European missionaries to provide education to the local people, many academic institutions have emerged in Maseno... Read more »
It is well known that all across Africa, as well as the world, European powers installed chiefs acting in the interests of the imperial nations. The British were no exception. They also appointed chiefs to help with their plans in Africa. The British created this chief-system because, according to political scientist David K. Leonard, they... Read more »
On December 20, 1901, Florence Preston, the wife of the engineer building the Kenya-Uganda Railway, drove the last nail in the last sleeper (crosstie) of the railway by the shores of Lake Victoria. Port Florence thus came into being. However, the city was only called Port Florence for one year; it then reverted to its... Read more »
The subject matter of race relations has remained a controversial issue world-wide. This issue continues to attract enormous attention from scholars of all sorts. This is anchored on the premise of the extent to which dependent groups can harmoniously work together, while at the same time minimizing conflicts that could possibly cause social stagnation and... Read more »
The calm, quiet haze of the early morning day settles on a town. The people there have seen thousands of days like this, and for what reason should there be any surprise? It is midafternoon when a group of investors roll on through, talking about building some railways. Within a few months they are gone,... Read more »