The county has a shoreline on Lake Victoria, occupying northern, western and a part of the southern shores of the Winam Gulf.

The term was especially used during famine where a person could "visit" relatives who had some sort of harvest where the "visitor", when going back to his/her place, could be "escorted with" or given some grains and dried meat (aliya in Luo).

It should be differentiated from 'fulo' where one rummages through the farm of someone else after the harvest to pick dropped or omitted crops to collect and take home for consumption".

(To the southwest, in neighboring Siaya County, lies the village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, birthplace of Barack Obama Sr.) The city of Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, has historically functioned as a major center of Western Kenya commerce.

On the western side, which includes the constituencies of Kisumu West and Seme, temperatures tend to be cooler than the adjacent lake basin.

[16] Kisumu County sits on the shores of Lake Victoria, providing it with the potential to be a major centre of fishing.

The new county government has provided equipment which currently rolling out the floating hyacinth on the surface of the lake.

Most of the water for irrigation comes from River Nyando, whose annual floods displace huge numbers of people but also deposit a lot of fertile silt all across the plain.

The northern and eastern fringes of the Kano Plains also play host to some of Kenya's most productive sugarcane fields.

Kisumu County also produces maize, beans, sweet potatoes, poultry and fresh vegetables.

Public transport services are provided by matatus and buses either operating singly or as parts of franchises and companies.

The narrow gauge railway moves both passengers and cargo, linking Kisumu with other cities and towns along the line.

Water transport on the lake is provided mostly by private operators in wooden boats with outboard engines, although a ferry service exists.

Mobile phone penetration is high, and the coverage by the major service providers (Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom is basically reliable.

Kisumu County is fast developing into a major tourist destination in the Western Tourism Circuit of Kenya.

Replete with great scenery and diversity concentrated within a relatively small area, Kisumu County's tourism sector is expected to experience a major boom.

Features like the shoreline of Lake Victoria, Kit Mikayi and other rocks of similar stature, Ndere Island National Park (which hosts an amazing variety of wildlife within a confined area), the God Mesa viewpoint in Nyabondo (from which one has a panoramic view of the Nyando Plains and Lake Victoria in the distance, and the inselbergs around the Kisian area provide a great attraction for tourists.

Kisumu is touted to have one of the best sunsets in the world, and arguably the best in Kenya, with the sun sinking into the horizon over the lake turning the water into many hues, a spectacle that continues to drive up tourist numbers into the county.

The location of Kisumu County puts it in major breeding ground for mosquitos, and malaria has been a perennial problem since time immemorial.

Another health problem that majorly affects the county is the relatively high rates of HIV infection.

With an area of 2,085.9 km2, Kisumu County has a population density of 460 per square kilometres, comparable to that of the entire South Korea.

This high consumption has sometimes been touted as one of the causes of the generally higher IQ levels in the region, and the eating of fish has become popular all over Kenya as a result.

This is usually accompanied by ugali, a dish made of maize flour which can also be mixed with other grains, mostly millet, sorghum and/or cassava.