The story goes that when European settlers first visited the area now known as Kakamega and were offered maize meal, the local staple food called Obusuma, and they tried to emulate the eating style for which the tribe was famous.

[3] The local inhabitants are mostly the Luhya tribe, whose economic activity is mainly cash and food crop farming.

[4] It was the scene of the Kakamega gold rush in the early 1930s, fueled partly by the reports of the geologist Albert Ernest Kitson.

[5] Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology is a new institution of higher learning created by an act of parliament in December 2006 which is in the heart of Kakamega town, along the Kakamega-Webuye road.

There is a myth about this rock with natives who believe that it is an image of a jilted woman who is crying due to being forced out of her matrimonial home and denied access to her children.

A hearsay in earlier years goes that the Isukha sub-tribe had wars with Nandi warriors and in most cases they defeated them.

Currently, the tourist attraction site is shaded from the roadside view by planted eucalyptus trees which have used up the rock's water and subsequently caused the "Crying Stone" to dry up.

[7] Kakamega forms a municipality with ten wards (Amalemba, Bukhulunya, Central, Mahiakalo, Maraba, Matende, Milimani, Musaa, Shibiriri and Sichilayi).

As a rainforest, the canopy of the trees has grown into a thin mesh of interlocking top branches that block most sunlight from reaching the ground below, resulting in little undergrowth.

Reputed by locals to spend much time in the trees, stories abound of fearsome attacks on unsuspecting passersby.