Homa Bay residents enjoy business boom as Madaraka Day hosts

Homa Bay County has been a beehive of activities in the last few months thanks to being host of the Madaraka Day national celebrations.

Cate Ogolla runs a small hotel next to the newly renovated Raila Odinga Stadium at the heart of Homa Bay Town. She says in recent weeks business has been good owing to numerous road projects which have been undertaken within the past few months.

On this day as Kenya marks 62nd Madaraka Day, she anticipates good returns as thousands of visitors from Homa Bay County and beyond arrive  for the celebrations.

“I expect more sales because there will be many visitors. We didn’t use to sell a lot of food because even the roads were narrow but now I expect business to improve,” she tell KBC Digital.

Her sentiments are echoed by Okech, a boda boda rider who is earning extra from delivery goods to vendors and hotels who are overwhelmed by the number of customers

“We expect a lot today. Right now I’ve come to the depot to pick sodas because there will be many guests during Madaraka Day and busiest will be good because it’s the first time as a county we are hosting such celebrations” says Okech.

From as early as four in the morning, the new 12,000 capacity stadium had started receiving locals eager to make their way into the stadium.

According to Interior and Administration Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo, at least 30,000 guests are expected to attend the event.

“For those who will not be able to be here physically, we will be having live feed so that we are able to have all as part of the celebrations,”  he stated.

He added, “We have done everything that was that was expected of us as the National Celebrations Steering Committee together with the Technical Committee and you can see that the stadium which is the main venue for the event is fully ready.

Among expected guests include President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar.