Kisumu Airport - Upgrade in Progress

Kisumu, situated in the Nyanza (Western) Province of Kenya on Lake Victoria is somewhat of a transport hub into the Western Province. Kisumu airport is in my mind one of the coolest airports in Africa. Its tiny - a couple of old buildings that look more like houses, an apron and a run-way. I always joke that the Business Class lounge is under the tree, where you can (buy and) drink beer while you are washed with scents of super-heated jet fuel from taxi-ing aircraft!

This is all to change as the upgrade and expansion of Kisumu airport has started. Kenya's president visited the area in July to officially commission the work, and it appears that work on a new runway to the west of the existing one has started. I am sure that the plans to upgrade the airport have been in the pipeline for sometime, but much noise was made in Kenya just after President Obama's inauguration that the airport would be upgraded to accommodate the flood of tourists who would rush to Kenya to visit Obama's father's village - Kogelo, which is accessed by road from Kisumu. The plan was also to tar the road all the way to the doorstep of his grandmother's home.

These ideas, along with some even more fanciful ones like the idea that Obama would come and give each Kenyan 1 million dollars (this made front page news!) seem to have gurgled down the nearest drain after President Obama declared Kenya to be one of the most corrupt countries in Africa (sometime in July). ATleast the airport expansion is still going to happen!

No time-frame has been proposed for the work to be completed, but in the meantime the airport retains its old-world charm, although not without some complications to air-travel. Kenya Airways (the largest and most reliable carrier in the region) have suspended there flights to and from Kisumu (2 per day). The cite the airport expansion as the reason, stating they will not resume operations until after the airport is expanded. It seems strange to me that they would suddenly suspend these services after years of service (I speculate that they found a more lucrative route for their aircraft!).

This has left the route to 3 smaller operators - Jet-link, Fly 540, and a "new" charter group called ALS. Jet-link and Fly 540 have very poor reputations where "on-time" departures are concerned, and both regularly cancel flights at the last minute. As an example, I needed to fly to Kisumu on Wednesday of this week. I booked Jet-link on Monday, but on Tuesday they decided to cancel Wednesday's flight. A colleague of mine was also in Kisumu, and was scheduled to fly back at 3pm on Friday. On Wednesday they canceled the 3pm flight for Friday and so I changed his booking to the 5pm flight. On Thursday they canceled the 5pm flight for Friday and re-instated the 3pm one. Confusion! My bottom-line - avoid Jet-link.

I've never flown Fly540 but too many friends in Kenya have. Where Jet-link atleast has the decency to cancel flights the day before, Fly 540 are well known to cancel flights minutes before departure!

On Wednesday I used ALS flying out of Wilson Airport - very conveniently located in town. The experience was different, but pleasant and on-time, a first for me for flights to and from Kisumu, so kudos to ALS - keep up the good work.

One "discomfort" that will hopefully be resolved with the Kisumu Airport upgrade is the difficulty of deplaning/boarding during a thunderstorm! On Wednesday just before my departure back to Nairobi, the heavens opened up and proceeded to drop 10's of milimeters of rain on Kisumu. The rain started just as the three aircraft (Jet-link, Fly 540 and ALS) artrived.

Initially the planes just sat on the apron, tension growing in the waiting passengers (and presumably those on board). Then one or 2 bright umbrella's appeared from the terminal, and ground staff started ferrying passengers in 2's from the aircraft - almost like a modern recreation of Noah's ark! As more umbrella's were rustled up - more people deplaned.

Jet-link - the largest plane, had the fewest umbrella's and I think more than half of its passengers had to walk in the rain! Once everyone was off, the reverse approach was used to get everyone back onto the aircraft. Quite an efficient operation in the end, but I imagine that air-ramps, or sheltered walk-ways, will be a better long-term solution!

I eagerly await the expanded and upgraded Kisumu airport, but a part of me wishes that things could stay as they are. There are so few simple airports left in this world, and one more is on the way out!

How can they sleep while their beds are burning?

Fire in Nairobi's Upper Hill - June 15, 2009.

That famous song by Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning came to mind this morning on my way to my office. I spotted a large brown cloud of smoke rising above the area where my office is. Nearing the site I discovered the road closed and had to take a detour through town to my office - which thankfully was not the source of the smoke.

The fire was a block down the road - a 2 story wooden building. The crowd watching the building burn was growing steadily - asking around I learned it was a residential building used by members of the military police. On one side of the building people were frantically throwing their belongings including beds, clothes, cupboards etc out of windows, while meters away the building was burning.

I estimate that the time between me noticing the smoke, detouring through town to the office and arriving at the scene (on foot after parking the car) was about 30 minutes. When I arrived no fire engines were to be seen. Several army officers and many police were on site though trying to calm the crowd.

Just then a fire truck arrived, belonging to one of the several private security security firms in Nairobi. Cheers arose from the crowd, but it was to be short lived - within minutes the water gushing from the single hose died, and the truck left - its tank empty. A second fire truck arrived next, but just parked itself - no water either!



The heat from the flames was intense, and occasional explosions rocked the building and caused the crowd to gasp, scream and jump. By now the crowd was changing from excited to agitated - an angry mob. Just then the riot police arrived wearing helmets, and carrying sticks and tear-gas guns. The crowd shouted some playful jeers at the officers, but you could see their fear as they began moving away - causing somewhat of a minor stampede in the process.

About that time - atleast an hour after the fire started more fire engines started to arrive - A couple of vehicles from the Nairobi fire department, and also several more from private firms. With these came several water tankers. By this point though, the fire had spread to an adjacent wing of the building and it was burning out of control.

Shortly after that I left the scene, however since then - about noon there have been a steady stream of water trucks and some more fire engines heading to the scene. I also say a large bulldozer being escorted in that direction.

Water is scarce in Nairobi, and the traffic can be nasty, but an hour response is way too long if lives and property are to be saved. Perhaps Nairobi should invest in more fire engines - and keep them filled with water for this kind of eventuality?

Whole Deep Fried Tilapia

I noticed today that my most viewed photo on flickr is not one of my great flower shots, nor one of my close-ups of some of Kenya's beautiful birds. It is in fact a photograph I took in neighboring Uganda of my lunch! The picture is of a whole deep fried Tilapia.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that I was receiving a few hits a day from various search engines, from people looking for information on preparing this dish. 

Its very simple to prepare - here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Whole Tilapia (one per person). Gutted. You can either scale it, or leave them on. 

Cooking oil (the amount you need will depend on the size of the fish, but remember the key word is Deep Fried so you'll need enough for the whole fish to actually be immersed)

Lemon or Lime Wedges.

Process

With a sharp knife score the sides of the fish 3 to 4 times (diagonally).

Heat the oil.

When its hot (a good way to test is to dip a piece of lemon into the oil, if it starts bubbling within 5 seconds, the oil is hot enough)

Carefully slip the whole fish into the oil (don't splash yourself).

The fish will take between 4 and 6 minutes to cook (dependent on the size). 

You'll know its ready as it will be golden brown.

Remove it and drain it well.

Serve it with slices of wedges of lemon and chips.

P.S: Tilapia is quite a boney fish, so its easiest to eat with your hands