• Africities is held every three years in one of the five regions of Africa.
• Whether the region's leadership will utilize the opportunity well is a discussion for another day.
Image: FAITH MATETE
Over 9000 delegates across the globe will be convening in Kisumu city during the 9th Africities Summit in May this year.
The event together with other events that have been hosted by the city, is beneficial to both the country and the Lake Basin region.
It boosts efforts to improve not only our image, showcase our potential as a business and tourist destination but also increases our credibility among the community nations as a serious place to invest in.
Whether the region's leadership will utilize the opportunity well is a discussion for another day.
Africities, the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa's (UCLG- Africa) flagship pan-African event, is held every three years in one of the five regions of Africa.
It focuses on the need for Local Africa to learn, promote and present a new approach to sustainable development.
The theme shall be “The role of Africa’s intermediary cities in the implementation of the UN’s Agenda 2030 and the African Union’s Agenda 2063″.
Already, accommodation places including bed and breakfast facilities in Kisumu, Vihiga, Siaya and Kakamega counties are stretched for conference; an indication that conferencing facilities are inadequate.
A county like Kakamega that hosts national universities has no conference facility that can host an international universities conference.
Why people cannot fly from Kisumu to any Uganda, Rwanda, or Tanzania town without passing through Nairobi still baffles me.
The lake basin region, with Kisumu City hosting an international airport, is strategically placed as a gateway to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Great Lakes Region which are potential markets for goods and services produced here.
The region has access to well-developed transportation routes into the COMESA and SADC regions.
In addition, the Lake basin shares natural resources like Lake Victoria, rivers, tourists’ destination sites, environmental and climatic conditions among others.
The agricultural potential is very good and rainfall levels are relatively high and stable.
Lake Victoria Kenya Tourism Circuit (LVKTC) has enormous potential as a tourist destination with sites including nature and wildlife; agro-tourism; water sports among other cultural heritage activities.
We have strong financial institutions including banks, microfinance, Saccos and lending institutions.
Why the Lake Victor Economic Block team has not pushed for some activities that will ignite economic growth and investments is troubling.
In addition to the Africities and East African Rally, Kenya has hosted big events like the GES2015, President Obama, the Pope, the World Trade Organization Council of Ministers, the World Assembly of Public Relations Practitioners among others.
These events have given the country the opportunity to showcase its potential as an economic hub in the region outside the routine challenges of insecurity, infrastructure, negative politicking, and ease of doing business bottlenecks.
These events bring huge numbers of visitors to Kenya and provide massive opportunities to Kenyans in various ways, which we need to showcase.
Our strength as a county lies in the business and hospitality industry.
As we work on improving the lives of our people, we need development journalism and media as an agent of social change.
A lot is happening in the country that is changing the lives of many in different ways.
As the media plays its watchdog role, it might also be helpful to assist in creating awareness of Kenya's offerings.
This will attract high-quality tourists while growing and developing mutually beneficial relationships with key players in the global hospitality space.
Those with information need to share it with the media proactively so that the media carries big stories about these various international events that the country is hosting.
These events not only add to its positive image but also the much-needed credibility and endorsement following the past terrorist attacks and cumbersome conditions that saw several investors either leave or shun the country.
Yes, the summit is coming at the height of the country’s electioneering period, but hopefully, it will find space to be talked about; for investments remains important even outside our politics.
Kisumu has a huge potential and the least the media can do is to show these opportunities during the summit.
It’s incumbent upon the government-both national and county to proactively share information on the plans around the summit.
They should also make elaborate communication plans and allow journalists access to strategic information that will enable them to do in-depth and informative stories on the same.