...Yessah, this is Kisumu...a motor speedboat doing what it is meant to do.

These residents of Kisumu are enjoying leisure boat rides on the lake... you just cant beat this if you want a relaxing day at the lake. The only problem is that this activity is available only to the one active club that has facilities to cater for such activities...the private, members only Kisumu yatch club...

What about you and me, ordinary residents who cannot afford the hefty club membership fees? This means that the vast majority of residents and visitors to Kisumu can only enjoy watching members of the Kisumu yatch club enjoy boat rides at the lake..and from a distance at that because there is no public access area at the lake as we speak...! This is the irony here...we are in Kisumu, at the shores of the largest lake in Africa yet only members of a private club can enjoy leisure activities like speed boating on the lake.

Just imagine the crowds that visit Nairobi's Uhuru Park to enjoy a boat ride in the pond... Think about the crowds that throng the beaches at the coast....now imagine the kind of crowds that would also throng the shores of lake Victoria in Kisumu if only we had publicly and freely accessible areas of the lake and it's shores... Think windsurfing, leisure catch and release fishing, jet ski's, canoeing, kayaking, boat rowing, sailing, kite flying, beach volleyball, beach soccer, food, drinks, many other forms of entertainment, etc.. the list of leisure activities that would attract thousands of people from within and around Kisumu to enjoy the lake is endless yet the reality is that only a select few members of a private club have these opportunities to enjoy the lake! Why O Lord, why cant I enjoy this beautiful lake...?

The business potential of providing goods and services to the thousands of people who would be enjoying leisure activities at the lake is enormous, this is a gold field waiting to be mined...others have done it, we can also do it. We can translate leisure activities on lake Victoria into a multi million shilling industry that would economically transform Kisumu instantly and propel it to a must visit city for both Kenyans and tourists...are you listening...over!

..."Yes we can"...

Now that we are going to vote in a new constitutional order, it is time to look inward and start thinking about our Kisumu County and what we can do to improve our social and economic welfare.

We must stand up and be counted among those who have said "Yes we can" and take our county's destiny in our hands. Let us strive to make Kisumu County a beautiful member of the pride of Kenya; a great place to invest and live in.

Like I said before, look at other cities that have harnessed the economic, sporting, cultural and aesthetic beauty that lakes, seas and oceans hold. We have the potential waiting to be harnessed Kisumu, seize the moment and vote "Yes" and help make the decisions to develop Kisumu a local affair made for us and by us.

...Jomo Kenyatta sports grounds...

...this is how a public/private venture is doing Kisumu good...now if this was done to open up the lake for social, recreation, and business activities...

...Is it not ironical that we are at the shores of the largest lake in Africa, yet we cannot enjoy the lake...?

...these beautiful grounds were were opened up for business, and look what Kisumu got, a fresh breath of air...I cant stop imagining what the lake front would look if it was developed and made a business, social, entertainment, and cultural center...mmmh

...Jomo Kenyatta sports ground...

...and you thought I was done, take in the beauty, enjoy this view from Aguch Kisumo; the restuarant in the mid of Sports ground...

...if can we get whoever designed the new look sports ground, and whoever is managing it to give the entire town a make-over...

...think of what the lakeshore would look if this beauty was re-created at the lakefront...time is ripe for Kisumu to reclaim it's full potential...

...Kisumo are you listening...

...Do you remember when...

...Jomo Kenyatta sports ground was a dustbowl, a den of all kinds of things that gave Kisumo a bad name; ninja's, pickpockets, mateka, mentally challenged people, solid and liquid waste...and it was the path to and from the railway station...

Sports ground is now a family friendly park and recreation centre; on weekends you can spot lil kids and their parents kicking soccer balls in the field, or picknicking in the tree-dotted park; two basketball and two netball/volleyball courts are on the fire station side; the hockey pitch is all levelled with compacted murram, and two beautiful restuarants are the flagship businesses in the rehabilitated buildings at the centre.

Sidewalks ring the grounds providing a beautiful trail with trees and flowers planted along them providing a serene relaxing atmosphere.

At night the well guarded and fenced grounds leave two of the four entrances into the grounds open to those who want to enjoy lthe lakeside quisine which includes many kinds of fish, traditional vegetables, ugali, drinks of your choice, dstv, and a live resident band to crown it all.

If this is what political goodwill and public/private partnership can achieve, then it is the way to go in reclaiming and harnessing the full business, cultural and social potential of our beloved Kisumo...

...lest we forget

...at the height of the post elections demonstrations and subsequent burning and looting, a top police lady gave the order to shoot to kill... most who died were shot in the back, within the sprawling residential areas days later; miles away from the looting that occured in the CBD, where central police station is...

...if the police did not shoot you dead; you ended up in a police cell, crammed full of disenfranchized and disillusioned Kenyans, like a box of sardines waiting for trumped up charges to be read to you.

...let this photo be a shrine in the memory of those who felt the wrath of the Kenya Police; a force led by semi-illiterate political appointees who operate like a lych mob, may shame be a constant weight on their neck...

...what kind of stuff does one have to chew, sniff, smoke, drink, or inject into their bloodstream to cram people in a cell like this...

...Kondele is marwa...

...have u ever dreamt of K'Ondele town...roads paved, concrete sidewalks, clear storm drains, streetlights functioning, trees lining the road to Kibos and to Mambo leo, buildings painted and well maintained...

...K'Ondele is ripe to rise and take it's rightful place... Do we have a town planner in Kisumu, do we have a vision of how K'Ondele could look if we had all the above in place...?