Commentaries
Could the real Kisii Town please stand up
- Details
- Published on Saturday, 07 November 2009 03:36
Prior to the post election crisis, Kisii and Eldoret were the fastest growing towns in Kenya. The crisis did slow Eldoret town quite a bit but it seems to have recovered superbly and may regain its position sooner than later. On the other hand, the growth momentum of Kisii Town remained largely unaffected and even went a notch higher with the influx of business people who were relocating from towns that were affected by the violence. At any given time, there are five to ten large buildings coming up in the town in addition to the laying of an elaborate network of all weather roads and a beautification campaign being carried out by the Kisii Municipal council all of which have transformed the town into one of Kenya’s most beautiful and vibrant towns. Add this to the fact Nairobi and Mombasa are the only places in which more money changes hands than Kisii Town in the entire republic and you have a town that is not about to slow down. Not many towns can claim to have within them more than ten different commercial banks and more than twenty supermarkets including the giant Nakumatt and Tuskys and yet, somehow Kisii is still considered to be some “shags”.
Only five or so towns in Kenya are better built than Kisii all of which – with the exception of Eldoret – are provincial headquarters. The resources, infrastructure and other benefits that come with a Town being the provincial headquarter are many and important in spurring further growth. Large towns like Kisii and Eldoret which are not Provincial headquarters, are therefore disadvantaged because such benefits are not available to them. However, Eldoret may not complain much because its proximity to retired president Moi’s home afforded it such facilities as the Eldoret Polytechnic, Eldoret Airport, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Moi University, Moi Barracks and the RTS among other facilities that even some provincial headquarters lack. Kisii is disadvantaged to be in the same province as Kenya’s third largest urban centre, Kisumu city. Had Kisii been in Western, Eastern, North Eastern or Central Province, it would have been the Provincial headquarters because none of the towns in these four provinces is bigger or more developed than Kisii Town. One or two towns in these four provinces may – due to topography – be spread out a little wider than Kisii town is but none is as built up as Kisii is.
Having lived and worked in a small sleepy town – Kakamega - that was suddenly transformed into a rapidly growing and vibrant business hub by the building of the Masinde Muliro University, I realized the impact that even just one of these “national resources” can have on a town’s fortunes. After comparing Kisii to Kakamega, I also realized that were these institutions to be located in the most deserving locations, then Kisii Town - and not Kakamega - is where this University should have been built. I wrote an article on this and posted it on a number of discussion boards online which triggered some real eye-opening debates on the subject all of which confirmed that indeed, Kisii town deserves a public university. I have pasted a link to that article for anyone who may want to read it. Because all the five or so towns that are bigger and more built up than Kisii – including Eldoret – have been boosted largely by these “national resources” while Kisii town’s phenomenal growth has been largely “self-driven”, one is left wondering what the town would be were it to be connected to the national railway grid, have a public university, a provincial hospital, an airport, a national polytechnic, provincial headquarters and military barracks among other facilities that the other “Big six” enjoy.
Kisii town has lately earned the reputation of the entertainment capital of the region. This is a reputation many of its residents find a bit disturbing but one which I find nothing wrong with. Going by the comments posted on the some of the photos at the Facebook group called “KISII TOWN” as well as the complaints I hear from the town’s more elderly residents whenever I engage them on this topic, many feel that the town now has far too many bars and clubs. Their reservations about this form of investment stem from their belief that it has a negative impact on the moral values of the Town’s residents. While this may be true to a certain extent, the economic benefits derived from these businesses far outweigh the negatives that come with it. Residents of several towns in Nyanza from as far away as Kisumu and the South Rift from as far away as Kericho visit and spend some of their weekends and thousands of shillings in the town’s famous clubs. For anyone who hasn’t been to these clubs, it may be difficult to understand how anyone could leave the city of Kisumu and travel all the way to “Nyambane’s hometown” in pursuit of entertainment.
A brief description of Kisii Town’s entertainment scene will no doubt be helpful in solving this puzzle. There are nearly twenty fancy Bars and Clubs in the town’s “beer belt” located in an area that is no more than two square kilometers which is perhaps the highest concentration of such joints anywhere outside Nairobi and Mombasa. Their names should provide an idea of their status too - Lisbon, Jazz, Armstrong, Havana, Dotcom, Titanic, Fountain, Oxygen, Dallas, Great Inn, Backyard and Rockers among others. Many of these stay open Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and are packed to capacity on weekends and fairly well on weekdays. All are tastefully decorated and have resident DJs who play such a wide variety of music genres that it’d be impossible not to find one that suits one’s taste. This is in addition to hosting theme nights and promotional campaigns. For football fans, every one of these has three to five large Plasma TV screens with state of the art sound systems that make watching the English Premier league matches an electrifying experience. This of course doesn’t sound like the Kisii in the minds of most Kenyans who have never sampled any of these joints or its night life but this is the real Kisii.
When you add these to the truly high class “garden hotels” that ring the town, such as Mash Park, Bridge Camp, The Blu Nile, Nyakoe Hotel and Savanna Guest House as well as those in the heart of the Town such as the Kisii Hotel, Mwalimu Hotel, Storm Hotel and the St. Vincent’s Guest House then you begin to understand why so many individuals and families troop to Kisii Town all the way from Migori, Homa Bay, Keroka, Nyamira, Kisumu, Sotik and Kericho to spend their weekends in the Town. One of these - The Bridge Camp Hotel – particularly deserves mention. It is conveniently located just a few metres from the Kisii-Kisumu-Migori Junction and less than 10 minutes drive from the town centre. On one side of its compound, it borders River Mogusii and on the other, it borders the Kisii-Kisumu highway. The parking space is ample, the service superb and the experience great. Bridge Camp is legendary for its food too - particularly the finger licking chicken - that can be enjoyed as your car gets a full body wash, your throat gets irrigated and your ears listen to the best African music. All these can be enjoyed either under the trees and open sheds outside, or in the bar and cubicles inside. It is particularly recommended for Kenyans in the diaspora who want to get that "home feeling"-or is it filling?
Kisii town is also perhaps the greenest town in the country. Anyone who goes through the photos of the town at the Facebook group called “KISII TOWN” will notice that in some places, five or six storey high buildings will be jutting out from within beautiful trees. Many of the town’s roads and streets are lined on both sides with vegetation which is kept green by the rain that seems to fall all year round. To cut the long story short, Kisii Town is beautiful and vibrant. Anyone who has the time and the means, deserves to enjoy this town over weekends. Any businessman who has the capital and wisdom needs to invest in this town because the return on in investment here is phenomenal when compared to the other so called big Kenyan towns. Anyone who has a relative or friend living in Kisii Town and has never visited them, is losing out BIG TIME.
