Mbita Point is a town in the former province of
Nyanza,
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, currently in Homa Bay County, on the shores of
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...
. It is home to the Thomas Odhiambo campus of the
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE, branded as ''icipe'') is an international scientific research institute, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya that works towards improving lives and livelihoods of people in Africa.
I ...
(ICIPE). A public primary school formerly international and a clinic are hosted by the centre. Mbita has several other primary schools as well as secondary schools. A small sub-district hospital is in the town. The main district hospital is in the neighbouring town of
Sindo
SINDO is one of many semi-empirical quantum chemistry methods. It stands for symmetric orthogonalised INDO and was developed by K. Jug and coworkers. Like MINDO, it is a development of the INDO method. The main development is the inclusion of d ...
, 17 km away. Mbita has had water and electricity since 2005. Mbita Point has an urban population of 6100, but the population grows rapidly due to urbanization, new technologies like cell phone coverage and internet connection through cyber cafes, electrification, trade and education. The town was the capital of the former
Suba District
Suba District was an administrative district in the former Nyanza Province of Kenya. Its capital town was Mbita Point. The district had a population of 155,666 and an area of 1,055 km2 .
Mbita can be reach by road
Kisumu
Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province. It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The ...
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Ahero
Ahero is a town close to the city of Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya and the second largest city, after Kampala, in the Lake Victoria Basin. It is an agricultural town in Kenya that is part of Kisumu County. The town has a retail market s ...
-Katito-Kendu Bay-Homa Bay (150 km) or from Kisumu-Luanda Kotieno (90 km) and a 45-minute ferry ride across Winam Gulf. This latter road was tarmacked in 2011. The main income-generating activity in Mbita is fishing, but tourism is becoming a new trade as the road connections to the rest of the country are being improved. There is a tourist resort on the beach about 3 km to the south of the town, Lake Victoria Safari Village and Mfangano island camp which is located on a nearby island. This can be connected by the ferry which leaves from Mbita twice a day at 10:30 and 17:00. Ruma National Park is a 40-minute drive from Mbita. A causeway links Mbita to nearby Rusinga Island, the Island itself is a place that is worth touring as it has numerous hills surrounded by the lake. The causeway was built in 2017.
Homa Bay County
Populated places in Nyanza Province
Populated places on Lake Victoria
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