The Africities summit which is held every three years, in one of the five regions in Africa will for the first time be held in Kisumu County, the first intermediary city in Africa to hold the 9th edition.
The city is organizing the event with the national government working confidently to get the city in shape ahead of the summit to be held in May 2022.
More road networks are being improved for easy access to the venue of the conference, which will be performed at the Mamboleo showground where the government is building a convention centre.
More than 3,000 investors are expected to attend the conference which is set to run between May 17 and 22, 2022.
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has also kicked off the expansion of the Kisumu International Airport in readiness for the conference.
The airport which will double up its current capacity upon completion is expected to be ready for operation before the summit.
According to The KAA Managing Director Alex Gitari, all the necessary preparations have been put in place to ensure construction runs smoothly.
The airport was originally upgraded to process 250,000 passengers annually, but demand has grown to 500,000 passengers.
The event will be a platform to grow not only Kisumu County but also the entire Lake Region Economic Block (LREB) and Kenya at large.
The region will showcase what it has to offer in agriculture, tourism, industrialisation, manufacturing, sports and culture.
“This conference seeks to lay the ground and prepare us to fully reap the benefits of Africities when the world converges in Kisumu,” said Governor Anyang Nyong’o during his fourth state of county address in December last year.
The summit that aims to address major questions based on the implementation of agenda 2030 of the United Nations and Africa union, is coming to the country for the second.
This is an indication that Kenya has improved on many aspects hence giving it another opportunity to host the conference.
