Kisumu’s Airport-Mamboleo Road under rehabilitation in readiness for Africities summit

 

A Grader doing some work near Auji area during the rehabilitation of Airport-Mamboleo Road.The Road is being rehabilitated in readiness for the forthcoming Africities Summit in May this year-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

March 9, 2022

Kisumu’s Airport-Mamboleo Road under rehabilitation in readiness for Africities summit

THE Kisumu’s Road Serving Airport from Mamboleo area is currently under serious rehabilitation as one of the major roads that will be directly used from the Kisumu International Airport to Mamboleo Show Ground area where a convention Center that will host the Africities summit this May is.

A spot check by this writer reveals major haul of the road from Mamboleo Junction area next to the Lake Basin Mall to Riat Market near Kisumu International Airport.

There is also serious expansion of the road to help accommodate more vehicles which are expected to use it during the much publicized Africities Summit that will be held from May 17 to 21 this year in Kisumu.

The expansion of the road has led to the removal of some illegal structures in the road reserves in areas that include white stone, Kanyamedha and next to Riat Market.

The road will provide a direct access from Kisumu International Airport to Mamboleo area where the venue of the summit will be at a convention center within the Show Ground and many motorists going to the conference would not want to come to all the way to the City center then en-route to Kondele before proceeding to Mamboleo area.

For a long period of time, the road has been in dilapidated state especially during rainy seasons that normally sweep the murram used for upgrading it and now the residents have a sigh of relief following the forthcoming Africities Summit that has made it to be rehabilitated and will be tarmacked for easy access.

A resident of Kanyamony area Joram Ajumbo says the Government has done a good job in rehabilitating the road, adding that it will further open up businesses within the area.

The rehabilitation of the road comes barely a few days after the Chief Executive Officer of Africities Summit 2022 Joe Ager revealed that Kisumu City will host the Summit successfully since preparations are at top gears to ensure its success.

Ager said one of the preparations is the rehabilitation and tarmacking of Airport-Mamboleo Road which will help in easing access to the venue of the Summit at Mamboleo Show Ground where a convention Center is currently undergoing construction.

The Chief Executive Officer said there is also the construction of a 4,000 sitter Convention Center at Mamboleo show Ground where the Africities Summit will be held.

Ager added that already the construction of the Convention center is at 40 percent, adding that the secretariat is optimistic that it will be soon completed and the conference will be held there.

He said the contractor at the site has assured the organizers of the event that the construction will be completed in time and used to hold the International conference, adding that the work is ongoing 24 hours in shifts.

The Ground breaking ceremony for the shs 1.4Billion Convention Center was done in July last year and it has taken nearly eight months now for the ongoing construction.

The then Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa who officiated the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the Convention Center within the Agricultural Society of Kenya Show Ground at Mamboleo said the Conference will also have economic connections within the inter land.

The Chief Executive Officer has also hinted that the Secretariat at the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa {UCLGA} has hired a very competent experts on organizing International Conventions to manage the forthcoming Global event.

“We are very sure that the forthcoming Africities Summit to be held in Kisumu will be very much successful. This is because preparations are in top gears to ensure that it is a great success,” he says.

The African Cities{Africities} is a pan-African conference held every three years since 1998 when the first meeting was held in Abidjan, Cote d’ voire.

It is being convened by the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa’s {UCLG-A}.

With its headquarters at Rabat in Morocco, the Africities brings together the leadership of Cities {Mayors}, Sub-National and Local Governments with the aim of improving living standards of their citizens.

The hosting of the Africities Summit rotates between five African Sub-Regional Blocks.

This Ninth Edition of the Africities Summit will be held in Kisumu as an intermediary city from May 17 to 21 this year.

The Eight Edition of the summit was held in Marrakech in Morocco in 2018.

In 2006, Kenya hosted the Africities Summit for the first time in Nairobi and this year in May, it will host it for the second time in Kisumu which is not its Capital City but an intermediary City after Kenya won the bid to host it in the year 2021 November.

 The effects of Corona virus pandemic made it pushed to May this year.