Foreign Investors in Kisumu

After the trips to Zanzibar and Rwanda, I had a busy September and October with Millennium Cities. At the end of September, we launched the Kisumu Investor's Guide, the first investment guide for an African city. This guide will be used as a marketing tool to attract sustainable investment into Kisumu. Pictured here is the Mayor of Kisumu receiving the Investment Guide from the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Planning and National Development.

We followed this up with the first foreign investor mission to Kisumu, which began last Sunday and ended yesterday. With a group of 12 German investors and an equal number of foreign investors already established in Kenya, but not yet in Kisumu, we spent two days in Nairobi and three days in Kisumu. The purpose of the mission was for the foreign investors to visit local companies and meet with local business people and government officials to explore investment opportunities in the Kisumu area. We had cocktails with the German ambassador, lunch with the Mayor and Town Clerk of Kisumu, dinner again with members of various business associations in Kisumu and visited a geothermal plant, sugar mill, ethanol factory and rice farm, amongst doing many other things.

On Wednesday of this past week, 17 October, we had a major event in Kisumu as part of this foreign investor mission, we called Kisumu Day - a day of highlighting Kisumu's investment potential. I had expected only 100 people to attend, but 200 showed up at the Imperial Hotel in Kisumu, including many top executives, government officials and members of NGOs or foreign missions. It was a full and lively day with discussions on Kisumu and its opportunities. We launched a new investment promotion office for the city during the day as well. All considered it a big success, and it was covered widely by the national press.

But then, that night at a dinner hosted by the Ministry of Planning at the Kisumu Yacht Club, something unexpected and very frightening happened. We were almost through eating dinner - 100 guests were enjoying a nice cool evening, sitting outside by the shores of Lake Victoria, mingling among foreigners and locals, listening to traditional Luo music played by a live band, while eating a mixture of Kenyan and Indian food - when we saw coming from the parking lot a group of men, towards our tables. Then, there was some shouting, rushing of men from around our tables towards the men in the parking lot and the pop pop pop pop of what seemed like fireworks. We saw running and movement in the dark. And more popping sounds. It happened withing split seconds and someone yelled to get on the ground. I had been sitting at a table with mostly the white foreigners, and a few Kenyans, near the front, closest to the parking lot from where the noise came. I turned around to look behind me, and saw the tables now completely empty, as the other 80 guests - all the Kenyans - had hit the ground, some were behind bushes, under the tables, hidden by table cloths. The band had stopped and were also on the ground. It was dark and silent for what must have been 10 minutes. It was surreal. Our table just sat there, not at all sure of what was happening, in stunned silence. Finally, more police arrived and the Provincial Comissioner made an announcement that all was under control now.

A group of armed thugs had approached the Kisumu Yacht Club to rob us. The Yacht Club guards were unarmed, but when attacked managed to alert, somehow, the 4 armed soldiers accompanying the Provincial Commissioner. If we had not had those soldiers, we would have been robbed at gun point. The soldiers chased after the men, into the parking lot where the gun fight ensued. One thug was killed, another captured. Last I heard, they had not caught the other 5. We believe we were targeted - of course - a group of investors with some dignitaries. It was an unfortunate event, as one of the positive aspects of Kisumu, versus Nairobi, is in how safe and secure it is - since January I have not heard of a single incident like what happened to us at the Yacht Club - it was a strange, freak occurrence for the area, but not a welcoming way to try to bring foreign investment into a community!

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After two months of heavy work - yes, I am working - I'm now off again. I leave this afternoon for two weeks in Ethiopia, back on 3rd November. I'll post all about it when back!