Socio-economic activities
Peasant farming is the predominant economic activity with locals majoring in subsistence crop cultivation and domestic animal rearing. Popular crops grown include maize, beans, millet, cassavas, sweet potatoes, cow peas, tomatoes and kales. The animals kept include cattle, sheep and goats. Some farmers are also involved in small-scale cash crop farming, majoring in sugar cane, which supplies the local jaggeries in Luanda, Panyako and Uhembo.
Nyagondo recently benefited from the Rural Electrification Programme, which has helped to boost economic activity and living standards in the area. The area also has a health facility that is funded by the government, both directly and indirectly, from the LATF and CDF programmes.
The main economic challenge remains youth unemployment and poverty as most residents of Nyagondo, like many Kenyans, live on less than a dollar a day.
Kisumu is the sixth-largest urban area in Kenya. Furthermore, it is the second-largest city in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city is the headquarters of the Lake Region Economic Bloc, which is a conglomeration of 14 counties in Western Kenya. In 2006, the UN-Habitat designated Kisumu City as the first UN "Millennium City" in the world. It is the largest and principal city of Western Kenya, and the most important inland port in the Lake Victoria circuit. Kisumu is not far from K'Ogelo, a village known for being the hometown of Barack Obama Sr., the father to the 44th president of the United States.
The Abagusii is an East African ethnic group that largely originate from the Pre-Bantu Agropastoralist inhabitants of present-day Kenya particularly former Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces of Kenya of the same stock as the ancestors of the modern Nilotes, Omotics and Cushites as well as the ancient East African hunter/gatherers similar to Ogiek. However, a minority of the Abagusii are believed to have been assimilated from the Luhya and Olusuba speaking Suba people (Kenya) that are believed to have migrated from the West of Lake Victoria that is present-day Buganda and Busoga. The Abagusii are closely related to the Maasai, Kipsigis, Abakuria,and Ameru of Kenya. They also have close linguistic relationship with Ngurimi, Rangi, Mbugwe, Simbiti, Zanaki and Ikoma people. However, a lot of evidence from studies of East African Bantu languages and anthropology suggests that the Abagusii and the mentioned related tribes emerged from the Pre-Bantu Agropastoralists of East Africa believed to have come from the North of Mt. Elgon. The Abagusii traditionally/natively inhabit Kisii County and Nyamira County of former Nyanza Province of Kenya as well as parts of Kericho County and Bomet County of the former Rift Valley province of Kenya. The Abagusii are also found in other regions of geographical Western Kenya including former Nyanza Province such as Homa Bay County, and the rest of Luo-Nyanza as well as the rest of Kenya through recent migrations in post-colonial Kenya. There is also a significant diaspora population of Abagusii in countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa among other countries within and outside Africa. The Abagusii speak Ekegusii language which is classified together with the Great Lakes Bantu languages. However, the inclusion of Abagusii in the Bantu language group is a subject of debate given that studies on East African Bantu languages have found the Ekegusii together with Kuria, Simbiti, Ngurimi, Rangi and Mbugwe languages to be far distinct from the typical Bantu in terms of structure and tense aspect. Mogusii is culturally identified as their founder and patriarch. The Abagusii are however, unrelated to the Kisi people of Malawi and the Kissi people of West Africa, other than the three very distinct communities having similar sounding tribal names. The traditional occupation of Abagusii in pre-colonial Kenya included hunting and gathering, pastoralism/herding and cereal, fruit (pumpkin) and root crop farming forms of Agriculture with pastoralism being the dominant occupation of Abagusii in pre-colonial Kenya. Today the Abagusii have adopted other forms of agriculture through interaction with the European colonists that introduced new crops and new cultivation methods to Gusiiland and Kenya as a whole with the same applying to the other African countries/communities. Some of these factors have ensured farming to be the most dominant economic activity among Abagusii as opposed to pre-colonial Kenya where they were pre-dominantly pastoralists and hunters and gatherers.
Trans-Nzoia County is a county in the former Rift Valley Province, Kenya, located between the Nzoia River and Mount Elgon, 380 km northwest of Nairobi. At its centre is the town of Kitale which is the capital and largest town. The county borders Bungoma to the west, Uasin Gishu and Kakamega to the south, Elgeyo-Marakwet to the east, West Pokot to the north and the republic of Uganda to the Northwest. Trans Nzoia covers an area of 2495.5 square kilometres.
Nakuru is the third-largest urban area in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. It is the capital of Nakuru County and former capital of the Rift Valley Province as well as home to Radio AirPlay which is the largest neo-urban Radio in the metropolis. Its urban and rural population is 570,674 inhabitants according to the 2019 census. It is the largest urban center in the Rift Valley with Eldoret in Uasin Gishu following closely behind. Nakuru lies about 1,850 m above sea level. Alternative names include Nax or Naxar, and Kurusalem.
Kisii is a municipality and a major urban center in south-western Kenya. It is the capital of the Kisii County which has a population of 1,266,860 according to the Kenya National Census of 2019. Kisii Town also serves as the main urban and commercial center in the Gusii Highlands and the South Nyanza region and the second largest town in greater Nyanza after Kisumu City. It is a bustling town and a home to several businesses, organizations, educational institutions and government agencies. Kisii municipality sits right at the center of the western Kenya tourist circuit that includes the Tabaka Soapstone Carvings, Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Lambwe Valley Game Reserve and the entire Lake Victoria basin. The town continues to serve these former districts, the larger South Nyanza County and the Trans Mara area of western Narok County in commerce. Kisii town connects the Great Rift Valley and Nairobi to Migori and the Kenya-Tanzania border and has a sizable manufacturing industry based on agriculture primarily plantation farming.
Kisumu County is one of 47 counties in the Republic of Kenya. Its borders follow those of the original Kisumu District, one of the former administrative districts of the former Nyanza Province in western Kenya. Its headquarters is Kisumu City which is the third largest city in Kenya after the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa. It has a population of 1,155,574. The land area of Kisumu County totals 2085.9 km2.
Taveta is the name of a tribe of East Africa. It is also the name of the principal town in the land of the Taveta people, and the name of the surrounding subdistrict of Kenya.
Siaya County is one of the counties in the former Nyanza Province in the southwest part of Kenya. It is bordered by Busia County to the north, Kakamega County and Vihiga County's to the northeast and Kisumu County to the southeast. It shares a water border with Homa Bay County which is located south of Siaya County. The total area of the county is approximately 2,496.1 km2. The county lies between latitude 0° 26’ to 0° 18’ north and longitude 33° 58’ east and 34° 33’ west. Siaya has been split up into six new districts. Under the Constitution 2010, the role of districts are still unclear as much of administrative authority is being transferred to the county. The capital is Siaya, even though the largest town is Bondo.
The Turu are an ethnic and linguistic group based in the Singida Region of north-central Tanzania who speak the Bantu Kinyaturu. In 1993, the Turu population was estimated to number 556,000. The current population of the Turu is now over 1,000,000. They speak the Turu language
The Kuria people (also known as the AbaKurya, are a Bantu community in Tanzania and Kenya. Their homeland is bounded on the east by the Migori River and on the west by the Mara River estuary. Traditionally a pastoral and farming community, the Kuria grow maize, beans and cassava as food crops and coffee and maize as cash crops.
Butere is a town in Kakamega County of the former Western Province of Kenya. It has an urban population of 4725. Until 2010, the town was the capital of the former Butere/Mumias District.
Nyamninia is a village in the Gem Location, Yala division of Siaya County, Kenya. Situated approximately 30 miles from Kisumu city, Nyamninia is home to the 100 kilowatts medium wave radio transmitters set up by Voice of Kenya (VoK); now renamed Kenya Broadcastic Corporation (KBC). It was the birthplace of the legendary Gem clan chief, Odera Kang'o who started a rice plantation scheme in the area about one hundred years ago. The Gem chief was responsible for construction the numerous schools in the region before his enforced exile in 1915, to Kampala, Uganda by the British colonialists.
Homa Bay County is a county in the former Nyanza Province of Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Homa Bay. The county has a population of 1,131,950 and an area of 3,154.7 km2. Lake Victoria is a major source of livelihood for Homa Bay County.
Ugunja town is a market town in western Kenya, located in Ugunja Division, Siaya County. It has a population of approximately 17,000 and is rapidly growing. Ugunja Division had a population of 79,113 according to the 1999 Kenyan census. Most of the inhabitants in Ugunja are Luos.
Nyang'oma Kogelo, also known as Kogelo, is a village in Siaya County, Kenya. It is located near the equator, 60 kilometres (37 mi) west-northwest of Kisumu, the former Nyanza provincial capital. The population of Nyangoma-Kogelo is 3,648.
Fort-Ternan is a small town in Kericho County, Kenya, located 50 kilometres east of Kisumu and five kilometres east of Koru. It is named after Col. Trevor Ternan C.M.G.D.S.O. Fort Ternan is located at the western border of the former Rift Valley Province. Fort Ternan forms a ward of Kipkelion West Constituency and Kipsigis town council. Fort Ternan is also a location in the Chilchila division.
Wabane is a town and council/commune in Cameroon. It is the headquarters of Wabane sub-division in Lebialem division Southwest Region of Cameroon.
Kihuyo is a settlement in Kenya's Central Province, located seven kilometers from Nyeri town.
Matayos is a settlement in the Busia County of Kenya's former Western Province. Matayos is a small township of about two thousand inhabitants along the B1 road, sixteen kilometres from the Busia border point, and about two kilometres east of the Sio River bridge. Matayos Division, whose seat is at Matayos centre is a very small borough covering the stretch of about twenty-two kilometres from Korinda junction near Busia town at its extreme west-point to the Rakite stream depression near Bumala junction to the east. The division is home to about eighty-thousand people.
Kyankwanzi District is the northernmost district in the Buganda Region of Uganda and Buganda Kingdom, bordering Bunyoro. The district headquarters are in Butemba Town.
Kenya