By Anderson Ojwang
The common quote “If horses were wishes beggars could ride” aptly captures Kisumu County government that dreams of magnificent architectural designs that wow the public by their glittering and beautiful appearances but at implementation the structures are an eyesore and a complete contrast of the drawings.
Kisumu’s creative imagination is one of its kind in the country and planet and by any chance if the architectural designs were to be implemented successfully, the lake city would be the Africa’s Yurop (Europe).
If art could be made to a reality and not fiction Kisumu would be heaven. The place to be, a home away from home. The magnificent architectural designs, the beauty and the allure of the drawings remain in the utopia.
The architectural designs provoke a buzz, excitement and pregnant expectations have for years been still birth and if by chance are implemented, they are more a total downgrade, mirage and illusion.
Kisumu City, priding itself as the cleanest in the country and the second in East Africa, and 6th in Africa remains in dreamland with nine wonders of the world in infrastructural development yet to be implemented.
A Kisumu resident Adede Owala wrote in his Facebook page “ Anyang’ Nyong’o has unveiled yet another drawing and architectural design, this time for the proposed Kisumu Arts and Cultural Center, projected to be one of its kind in East Africa. However, since 2018, the “son of Canon” and an award winning “planner” has released multiple artistic impressions in Kisumu, yet not a single one has ever materialized. It has been drawing after drawing, with no actual projects to show.”
Nyong’o during the groundbreaking ceremony in 2020 said “The multi-purpose stadium will have a football pitch, volleyball, basketball courts, hockey pitch, Rugby pitch and tennis court. The project at Jomo Kenyatta is ongoing and if we get funding from the World Bank through the Kenya Urban support program, we will do more.
As the county government of Kisumu, we have plans to renovate the Moi stadium Kisumu. My role as a Governor is to improve sports facilities in the whole county including Muhoroni Stadium.”
Effort to get comment from the governor communication team was fruitless after they did not respond to our calls and texts messages.
