Excitement in Kisumu is filling the air as the project to ease vessel navigation on Lake Victoria starts today after launch by African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga.
The transport boost mission seeks to open up Winam Gulf through a dredging vessel to remove water hyacinth which has invaded the region in addition to weed, extending to Homa Bay County.
The first recorded information about Lake Victoria comes from Arab traders plying the inland routes in search of gold, other precious commodities, and slaves.
An excellent map, known as the Muhammad al-Idrisi map from the calligrapher who developed it and dated from the 1160s, clearly depicts an accurate representation of Lake Victoria, and attributes it as the source of the Nile.
Lake Victoria (Nam Lolwe in Luo; Nalubaale in Uganda Nyanza in Kinyarwanda and some Bantu languages is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it. Speke accomplished this in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton to locate the source of the Nile River.
Raila’s visit has evocked feelings that the old name Nam Lowe was better for the lake in opposition to the colonial name.
You call it lake Victoria we call it Nam Lolwe, it had a name before the colonizers came.
— Millan Ouma™ (@millanouma) January 18, 2019
I think it’s the high time Lake Victoria is named back Lake Nyasae. Victoria didn’t discover shit.
— Allen Nzioka (@IamAllenNzioka) January 17, 2019
A 70-metre dredging vessel arrives at Kisumu to begin the work of removing the water hyacinth from Lake Victoria. The vessel was procured by Lake Region Economic Bloc, National Government and Kisumu County Government in partnership with Uganda based Mango Tree Group.
What value does launching the hyacinth dredger on Nam Lolwe (the original name, changed to Lake Victoria by the whites) by @RailaOdinga add to the whole project? Hii tabia just adds some burden to our economy, ni kama ya Violet Kemunto.
— Ferdinand?? (@ferdiefeddy) January 18, 2019
Do you think Lake Victoria should remain the sam or the name should change back to Nam Lolwe?