Kakamega is a town in western Kenya lying about 30 km north of the Equator. It is the headquarters of Kakamega County that has a population of 1,867,579 . Kakamega is 52 km north of Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya and a port city on Lake Victoria. The average elevation of Kakamega is 1,535 metres. Kakamega county is Kenya's second most populous county after Nairobi. The county has 9 constituencies in total, namely Butere, Mumias East, Matungu, Khwisero, Shinyalu, Lurambi, ikolomani, Lugari and Malava. Kakamega was so named because the word "kakamega" translates roughly to "pinch" in Kiluhyah, which was used to describe how European colonists would eat the staple food, ugali.
Naming
It is often told that Kakamega derives its modern name from the local dialect. The story goes that when European settlers first visited the area now known as Kakamega and were offered maize meal, the local staple food called Obusuma, they tried to emulate the eating style for which the tribe was famous. To the hosts though, the visitors were more like ‘pinching’ the Obusuma. The resulting administrative area was named ‘Kakamega’, which roughly translates to ‘pinch.’ Actually the name is a combination of the swahili word kaka meaning brother and mega for big. So the name of the town means big brother. There is a tale that the town was originally inhabited by the Nandi, and when the building started swelling, the Nandi called the area “Kokomego” which loosely translate into there is a lot of buildings, in the Nandi dialect. The new inhabitants took the name and coined it into Kakamega.
Economics
Local Inhabitants are mostly the Luhya tribe, whose economic activity is mainly farming and fishing. Kakamega serves as the headquarters of Kenya's largest sugar producing firm, Mumias Sugar, located in the town of Mumias. Kakamega was the scene of the Kakamega gold rush in the early 1930s, fueled partly by the reports of the geologist Albert Ernest Kitson. Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology is a new institution of higher learning created by an act of parliament in December 2006 which is in the heart of Kakamega town on the Kakamega-Webuye road. It is expected to spur growth in this capital of Western Province. Kakamega Forest is the main tourist destination in the area. Another attraction is the Crying Stone of Ilesi located along the highway towards Kisumu. It is a 40 metres high rock dome resembling a human figure whose "eyes" drop water.
Administration
In 2013, Wycliffe Oparanya was elected as the first Governor of Kakamega County, and he retained the seat in the 2017 general elections. Kakamega forms a municipality with ten wards. All of them belong to Lurambi Constituency, which has a total of fifteen wards. The remaining five are located within Kakamega municipal Council, the rural council of Kakamega District.
Rainforest
Kakamega area receives a very high amount of annual precipitation and contains Kakamega Forest, a preserve which is a remnant of a rainforest that stretched west through Uganda. As a rainforest, the canopy of the trees has grown into a thin mesh of interlocking top branches that block most sunlight from reaching the ground below, resulting in less vegetation at the ground level. With few bushes along the darkened forest floor, the main obstacle is ancient fallen tree trunks blocking the paths between the standing trees. The German funded project BIOTA East is working in the forest since 2001, whereby firstly forest inventories for all sorts of life forms were performed and the aim is to find strategies for a sustainable use of the forest. More than 400 species of birds have been found in the Kakamega rainforest. The many song birds fill the air with various birdcalls. Kakamega is also home to Africa's largest and most aggressive cobra, the Kakamega forest cobra. Reputed by locals to spend a lot of time in the trees, stories abound of fearsome attacks on unsuspecting passers-by. Other snakes in the area include the forest adder, black mamba, and the green mamba.
