Local time Thursday 1:08 PM | ||
Weather 29°C, Wind E at 13 km/h, 38% Humidity | ||
Mbale is a town in western Kenya, the central town and headquarters of Vihiga County. It is also called Maragoli, after the indigenous inhabitants of the area. The town is located at the middle of two major towns i.e. Kakamega and Kisumu, and is home to the annual Maragoli Cultural Festival, which is held every 26 December.
Uganda has a town also called Mbale.
Mbale's population is around 60,000 people of different races which include the Luhya, Kikuyu, Kisii and Luo, Asians. Mbale has five major hotels and four major bars that serve people from as far as Kisumu and Kakamega. Mbale has four major banks, namely Barclays Bank, Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), and one Sacco bank, being Kakamega teachers Sacco society, which is yet to be officially launched but is functioning at the moment. Mbale has over a hundred small businesses such as shops, tailoring, bread distribution, cyber cafe services, healthcare services, construction, real estate, property mng and hotels.
Schools
The town has 10 primary schools (tertiary) and five secondary or high schools - the major ones being Hambale primary,Idavaga Muslim Primary, Shalom academy and Mukuli primary.High schools include Mbale High School, St. Clares Maragoli, Kegoye Friends' Secondary and Mbihi secondary. The current Vihiga County Governor His Excellency Hon. Akaranga is an allumni of Mbale High School located in the town.
Health It has 2 main Medical Centres i.e. The Vihiga District Hospital and Mbale Rural Provincial Health & Training Centre.
Religion The main church is the Roman Catholic Church. it has a Parish at Mbale known as st. Charles lwanga Hambale Catholic Church. However, other christian denominations include PAG, ADC, Anglican, Episcopal, Praise Center, Holy Spirit, Israe Nineveh, Bakoyani e.t.c. There are also tenents of Muslims in Mbale town.