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 THE KAKAMEGA COUNTY BLOG

This Article is All about kakamega county and very useful to those who might not have been in kakamega .

About Kakamega county

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 (2019 census).^[1]

Kakamega is 52 km north of Kisumu, the tenth largest city in Kenya and considered the heart of Luhya land. The average elevation of Kakamega is 1,535 metres.

The county has 12 constituencies in total, namely Butere, Mumias East,Mumias West, Matungu, Khwisero, Shinyalu, Lurambi, ikolomani, Lugari, Malava, Navakholo and Likuyani.

Kakamega was so named because the word "kakamega" translates roughly to "pinch" in Luhya, 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 from the former Nandi people who inhabited the area prior to the Luhya. 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.

Physical and topical features

County has an altitude range from 1,240 metres to 2,000 metres above sea level. Southern part of the county is hilly and made of granites which raises it 1950m above sea level. Nandi Escarpment is a key feature on the eastern border of the county with steep cliffs rising from 1700m to 2000m. The county is also endowed with a number of hills like Misango, Imanga, Eregi, Butieri, Sikhokhochole, Mawe Tatu, Lirhanda, Kiming’ini hills among others.

Demographics

As per 2019 census Kakamega county had a total population of 1,867,579 people, of which 897,133 are males, 970,406 being females and 40 intersex persons. There are 433,207 households with an average size of 4.3 persons per household and a population density of 618 people per square kilometer.

Distribution of Population by Sex and Sub-County

Sub-county	Male	Female	Intersex	Total
Butere	73,634	80,463	3	154,100
Kakamega Central	92,774	95,432	6	188,212
Kakamega East	80,553	86,784	4	167,641
Kakamega North	115,511	122,814	5	238,330
Kakamega South	53219	58,524		111,743
Khwisero	53,670	59,803	3	113,476
Likuyani	73,710	78,341	4	152,055
Lugari	59,135	63,593		122,728
Matete	31,749	34,423		66,172
Matungu	78,793	88,143	4	166,940
Mumias East	55,895	60,953	3	116,851
Mumias West	54,915	60,438	1	115,354
Navakholo	73,275	80,695	7	153,977
Total	897,133	970,406	40	1,867,579

Administrative and political units

Administrative units

Administration wise, the county is divided into twelve sub counties, sixty county assembly wards, eighty three locations, two hundred and fifty sub-locations, one hundred eighty seven Village Units and four hundred Community Administrative Areas. Politically, it comprises twelve constituencies and sixty wards.^[5][6]

Constituencies

The county has twelve constituencies (2013):^[5]

• Lugari Constituency
• Likuyani Constituency
• Malava Constituency
• Lurambi Constituency
• Navakholo Constituency
• Mumias West Constituency
• Mumias East Constituency
• Matungu Constituency
• Butere Constituency
• Khwisero Constituency
• Shinyalu Constituency
• Ikolomani Constituency

The Mumias Constituency was divided into Mumias West and Mumias East.

Political leadership

The governor is Fernandes Barasa and is deputised by Ayub Savula.^[ He has been governor since After being Elected in the 2022 general Elections and serving his first term and final term in office. Bonny Khalwale is the senator and joined office in 2022 after defeating the Brian Lishenga.Elsie Busihile Muhanda is the women representative and joined the office in 2017 and she's serving for the second term after defeating Naomi Shiyonga  ..

For Kakamega County, the County Executive Committee comprises:-

County Executive Committee

	Number
The Governor	1
The Deputy Governor	1
The County Secretary	1
The CEC Members	10
Total	13

Education

There are 1631 ECD centres 1136 primary schools and 408 secondary schools. The county has also 4 teachers training colleges, 51 Youth Polytechnics, 3 technical training institutes, 6 university campuses and 1 university as at 2014.

Education Institutions in Kakamega County 2014

Category	Public	Private	Total	Enrolment
ECD Centres	876	855	1631	105,426
Primary schools	883	253	1136	557,107
Secondary schools	2	2	4	116,732
Youth Polytechnics	47	4	51
Technical Training Institutes	3		0	2381
University Campuses	5	1	6	10,657
Universities	1	0	1
Adult Education Centres	195	0	195	16,542

Source^[14][15]

Health    

Kakamega has one county referral hospital (Kakamega County General Teaching & Referral Hospital), 12 sub-county hospitals, 47 health centres, 123 dispensaries and 44 clinics. Both private and public health facilities hold a total bed capacity of 3,949 with public sector having 2,338 beds and private hospitals 197 beds and mission/NGO is 1,414 beds capacity.^[2][14]

HIV prevalence in Kakamega County is 4.0% lower than the national one that is at 5.9%.

Health Facilities by Ownership^[14][17]

	Government	*FBO	Private	NGO	TOTAL
Hospitals	12	4	0	0	16
Health centres	38	9	0	0	9
Dispensaries	95	10	18	0	123
Clinics	0	1	43	0	43

• FBO – Faith Based Organizations

Trade and commerce

There are 62 trading centres, 11,083 retail traders, 21 supermarkets, 203 wholesale traders and 1180 registered hotels.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the backbone of the county with it producing over 65 percent of the total earnings.

There are two main categories of crops food crops and industrial crops and the last category being horticulture. Food crops include maize, sorghum, finger millet, rice, beans, peas, grams, cassava, s/potato, and arrowroots.

Transport and communication

The county is covered by 4,451.3 km of road network. of this 1,308.90 km is covered by earth surface, 2,792.25 is covered by gravel, 939.32 km is murram surface and 307.5 km is covered by bitumen.^[2]

There are 14 Post Offices with 8,400 installed letter boxes, 6,969 rented letter boxes and 1,431 vacant letter boxes.

Services and urbanisation

Stats for Kakamega County

County	Stats for the County (Percent)
Urbanisation	15.2
Literacy	72.7
Attending School (15-18 Yrs)	76.3
Paved Roads	4.9
Good Roads	54.1
Electricity Access	5.6
Poverty Rate	53
Stats for the County Country  Kenya Formed 4 March 2013 Capital Kakamega Government  • Governor Fernandes Barasa Area  • Total 3,033.8 km2 (1,171.4 sq mi) Population  (2019)  • Total 1,867,579[1] Time zone UTC+3 (EAT) Website kakamega.go.ke  Kenya 4 March 2013 Kakamega Fernandes Barasa 3,033.8 km2 (1,171.4 sq mi) 1,867,579[1] UTC+3 (EAT) kakamega.go.ke Images of kakamega county photo of Bukhungu stadium Ariel view Of kakamega Town References ^ "Kenya Census 2009". Retrieved 1 November 2016. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "COUNTY INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PLAN (CIDP) 2018-2022 – County Government of Kakamega". Retrieved 28 May 2020 ^ "Kakamega County". TurnUp Kenya. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2020.