Africities Summit a boon for Kenyan tourism

Guest arrive in Kisumu for Africities Summit

Scenes at Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium, Kisumu, as delegates arrive for the 9th edition of the five-day Africities Summit conference.

Photo credit: Ondari Ogega | Nation Media Group

The 2022 Africities Summit in Kisumu presents an extraordinary opportunity to discuss urbanisation on the continent and boost our tourism after two years of restrictions and lockdowns.

This year’s conference theme is, ‘The Role of Intermediary Cities of Africa in implementing the United Nation’s Vision 2030 and the African Union’s Agenda 2063’.

Goals presented in this development plan seek to create sustainable urban centres that will end poverty and guarantee the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, transforming the continent.

As Africa rapidly urbanises, we need to start planning and developing a coping mechanism for better quality of life. Essential services such as access to safe, clean drinking water, healthcare, nutrition, housing, education, and security should be priorities of African governments.

There is a problem of overcrowding and unemployment.

The cities have the potential for improved business opportunities if they strengthen their urban planning and scale up physical and structural infrastructure.

The Covid-19 pandemic presented a lesson on creating proper supply chains in urban centres. Considering most urban areas in Africa rely on rural areas for food supplies, efforts should be directed to improve the transport network and, where possible urban farming.

Small towns should be merged into urban metropolis to create a robust business environment for growth. For instance, towns along the Kakamega-Kisumu highway should merge to create a vital metropolis connecting Kisumu and Western Kenya.

This will give the city an excellent opportunity to diversify and transform people’s livelihoods.

At the conference, the Sustainability of African cities should be addressed.

In the wake of hyped economic development and transformation efforts, mitigation measures should be implemented to help cities cope with climate change.

This calls for stable governance structures for urban centres. Perhaps we should have departments within counties with elected representatives such as mayors who will be in charge of the administration of cities.

Bashir Omondi,

University of Nairobi


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Many Kenyans have been conned by people who pretend to be customer care agents from big financial institutions.

In some investment brands like crypto currency, fake brands are likely to come up and unsuspecting individuals who pretend to come from specific companies’ customer care desks often lie to individuals and convince them to provide their confidential information, such as ID and PIN numbers.

After obtaining the information, the criminals clean the accounts dry. It is advisable for a person to research before investing money to ensure they are legit institutions.

It is also advisable to take care of personal and confidential information. There are also links that may be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It is advisable to avoid such links as many are usually harmful.

Gabriel Kagose, Lang’ata