KISUMU, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the western part of Kenya (British East Africa), and entrusted to the St. Joseph’s Society of Mill Hill for Foreign Missions. It was formed from the Apostolic Vicariate of the Upper Nile, from which the territory of Kavarondò was detached on 15 July 1925 and erected into an Apostolic Prefecture. The said Prefecture of Kavirondo developed rapidly and on 27 May 1932 was raised to the status of an Apostolic Vicariate under the name of K. It covers an area of 65,000 sq. km.
Here are the statistical data for 1949: inhabitants over 1,520,000, of whom 222,166 are native Catholics, 972 foreign Catholics, 26,673 catechumens; native priests 6, foreign priests 85, native brothers 2, foreign brothers 4, native sisters 49 with 121 novices, foreign sisters 51, major seminarians 7, one minor seminary with 80 pupils, catechists 957, women catechists 15, male teachers 442, female teachers 59; almost 34 parishes, 153 secondary mission stations, 34 churches, 153 chapels, 7 maternity hospitals with 160 beds. Orphanages 5 with 10 boys and 36 girls, schools 533 with 31,897 pupils of both sexes, prayer schools 862 with 15,279 male pupils and 14,394 female pupils. Catholic Action flourishes here.