Kisumu: gateway to the Great Lakes, Kenya

One of the natural features of Kenya is Lake Victoria, sharing its shores with Tanzania and Uganda. Therefore Kisumu, although inland, in Kenya’s western border, can be regarded as a port city.

Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the second widest freshwater lake in the world. It is centered near the equator between East and West Great Rift Valleys. Its waters flow into the Victoria Nile and northward via Lake Albert and the White Nile until it reaches the River Nile.

Kisumu, a major city on the lake, with a tropical-equatorial climate, attracts wildlife including fish, birds, snakes, crocodiles, impala, leopards, baboons, and hippos. It is also the location of several prehistoric bones, found around the lake.

The photographs were taken at Kiboko (Hippopotamus) Bay Resort.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

http://www.kisumu.co.uk