The port was founded in 1901 as the main inland terminal of the Uganda Railway named "Port Florence’.
Kisumu literally means a place of barter trade “sumo”.
When the Europeans first settled in the area in the late 19th century, Kisumu became a trading post – attracting the Luo people from as far as Migori and Siaya County. The Kisumu region was then occupied by the Luo community. A person going to Kisumu at that time would say, “Adhi Kisuma” to mean I’m going to trade. Derived from the word “Kisuma”, the word for a trading post in Luo is “Kisumo”. In Nandi “Kesumett”. The current name Kisumu is an English corruption of the word “Kisumo” or “Kesumett”.
An opposing theory states that Kisumu acquired its name from ‘Kusuma.’ The Maragoli word for ‘trading.’ Because, before the Luo arrived in the area, the Maragoli were already trading with other people in the area like the Nandi and Maasai. It should be noted that some Luo words were acquired from the Maragoli.
The City of Kisumu is believed to be one of the oldest settlements in Kenya. Historical records indicate that Kisumu has been dominated by diverse communities at different times long before Europeans arrived. The people from the Nandi, Kalenjin, Abagusii, Maasai, Luo and Abaluhya communities converged at the tip of Lake Victoria and called the place “sumo” which literally means a place of barter trade. Each community called it different names, for instance:
The luo called it “Kisumo” meaning “a place to look for food” such that the luo would say “I am going Kisuma” to mean “I am going to look for food”.
The Abaluhya called it “Abhasuma” which means “a place to borrow food” such that the luhya would say “I am going Khusuma” to mean “I am going to borrow food”.
The Abagusii called it "egesumu meaning “a structure for keeping/rearing chicken”. It is believed the Abagusii were in Kisumu but found Kisumu was not good for crop husbandry and agriculture.
The Nandi called it “Kisumett” which means a place where food was found during times of scarcity and exchange, which cannot be attacked by Nandi and Terik irrespective of any issue.
“Kisumu was located on a rocky schwarz covered with thorn bush, before it was cleared and roads were cut”, so wrote C.W. Hobley, a pioneering colonial administrator, in 1900. On 20 December 1901, Florence Preston the wife of the engineer drove the last nail in the last sleeper by the shores of Lake Victoria and Port Florence came into being. However, it was only called Port Florence for a year, and then it reverted to its original Dholuo name Kisumu, meaning a place of barter trade “sumo”. Winston Churchill visited Kisumu in 1907.
Kisumu was identified by the British explorers in early 1898 as an alternative railway terminus and port for the Uganda railway, then under construction. It was to replace Port Victoria, then an important centre on the caravan trade route, near the delta of Nzoia River. Kisumu was ideally located on the shores of Lake Victoria at the cusp of the Winam Gulf, at the end of the caravan trail from Pemba, Mombasa, Malindi and had the potential for connection to the whole of the Lake region by steamers. In July 1899, the first skeleton plan for Kisumu was prepared. This included landing places and wharves along the northern lake shore, near the present day Airport Road. Demarcations for Government buildings and retail shops were also included in the plan.
Another plan was later prepared in May 1900, when plots were allocated to a few European firms as well as to Indian traders who had travelled to Kisumu on contracts to build the Uganda Railway and had decided to settle at the expanding terminus. The plan included a flying boat jetty (now used by the Fisheries Department). In October 1900, the 62-ton ship SS William Mackinnon was reassembled and registered in Kisumu, and made its maiden voyage to Entebbe, marking the beginning of the Lake Marine Services. The SS Winifred (1901) and the SS Sybil (1901) were later added to the fleet in 1902 and 1904, respectively. On Friday, 20 December 1901, the railway line reached the Kisumu pier, with the centre adopting a new name, Port Florence.
By February, the railway line had been opened for goods and passenger transportation. Kisumu was also privileged to host the first flight in East and Central Africa; the current police workshop was the first hangar in Kenya and entire East Africa. Before the jet airline era, the city was a landing point on the British flying boat passenger and mail route from Southampton to Cape Town. Kisumu also linked Port Bell to Nairobi.
In the meantime, it was realised that the site originally chosen for the township north of the Nyanza Gulf was unsuitable for the town’s expansion, due to its flat topography and poor soils. An alternative site was therefore identified and the town’s location moved to the ridge on the southern shore of the Gulf, where the town sits today. Consequently, another plan was prepared in 1902, which provided the basic layout of the new town on the southern ridge. This was followed by the construction of a number of Government buildings, notably the former Provincial Commissioner’s Office (now State Lodge) and the Old Prison (now earmarked for the construction of an Anglican Cathedral).
In 1903, the township boundaries were gazetted and some 12,000 acres, including water, set aside for its development. The new township reverted to its original name, Kisumu, in substitution of Port Florence. At this time, there was an ‘Old Kisumu’, that consisted of two rows of Stalls (Dukas) on Mumias Road, north of the Gulf. It was later demolished in the twenties when new plots became available on Odera and Ogada Streets in the present day Kisumu, hence the new area acquired the name ‘New Bazaar’.
By the 1930s and 40s, the city had become a leading East African centre for Commerce, Administrative and Military installations. In the 1960s the population of Asians in relation to Locals was significantly higher. The town was elevated to the status of a Municipal Board in 1940 and later to a Municipal Council in 1960. In the early sixties, very little development took place in Kisumu, with an acute shortage realised in dwelling houses, shops and offices. The situation was later made worse by the influx of locals into the town following the declaration of independence in 1963.
The city’s growth and prosperity slowed down temporarily in 1977, as a result of the collapse of the East African Community. However, the city spurred with the reformation of the community in 1996 and with its designation as a “city.” The port has been stimulated by the transformation of international business and trade, as well as the shipments of goods destined for Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
[ATTACH=full]156344[/ATTACH]
Bazaar, Kisumu-C. 1940s