Western Kenya’s ‘acres of diamonds’ cry out for tourists

Flamingoes wade in Lake Simbi Nyaima in Homa Bay County on March 24, 2021. The lake lies idle without any economic value to both residents and the county government despite its potential in domestic tourism. [James Omoro, Standard]

It was Eric Van Der Linden, the then Head of European Union Commission, who on his first visit to western Kenya in 2008, likened the region’s tourism circuit to “acres of diamonds”.