Once dusty township, Mbita now home to breezy hotels

Most people may not know this. Mbita, once a dusty township at the head of Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, gave rise to the globally-acclaimed International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), a member of the Association of International Research Development Centres for Agriculture (AIRCA), in 1970, midwifed by the late Prof Thomas Odhiambo. Though today headquartered in Nairobi, ICIPE’s field station remains in Mbita.

Mbita was chosen for the research infrastructure courtesy of its humid and warm climate that favours a rich insect biodiversity of which tsetse fly, which until recently rendered the nearby Lambwe Valley uninhabitable, is an important component.