Homa Bay hopeful of devolution summit boost
By Noven Owiti, August 6, 2025Hoteliers in Homa Bay County are gearing up for booming business during this year’s devolution conference.
The Council of Governors (CoG) will host the 2025 devolution summit in the county from August 12 to August 15, 2025.
The forum offers a platform to showcase devolution gains in Kenya. Further, it serves as an opportunity for knowledge sharing to enhance the implementation of devolution in the country.
The annual event is expected to attract hundreds of delegates, ranging from national and county government officials, political leaders, development partners, civil society organisations and entrepreneurs, among others.
Ahead of the event, most hotels in Homa Bay have recorded full bookings, with the sector players optimistic of posting good business.
At Cold Springs Hotel, all 70 rooms are booked for the event from August 11 to August 16, 2025. Hotel manager Dickson Osore said the bookings were made from last month.
“We are completely prepared to welcome guests during the conference. We have put on standby vehicles to ferry guests to and from the venue,” he said, adding that the facility is still getting a lot of inquiries for bookings.
Osore said that due to the high influx of guests, they expect hotels in the neighbouring counties, including Migori and Kisii, to come in handy and fill in the gap in room capacity by hosting the delegates attending the conference.
“Most of our clients will check out on August 16,” he added.
The situation is the same at Golden Rays and Twin Towers hotels. Tausi Hotel manager Maurice Ouma said his facility is fully booked for the entire conference period.
The facility has 26 rooms, and all are reserved for the conference period.
“It has come as a very big boost to us in terms of business because the previous period has not been good for the industry across the board. With very high volumes, the week-long conference will offer business support,” said Ouma, adding that they are still getting a lot of inquiries from different people seeking accommodation during the conference.
The hoteliers are hoping that the event will help enhance the county’s hospitality industry.
“The conference is coming up when most hotels have had low business, and it will definitely help boost our revenues,” said Osore.
The area’s small-scale traders are equally confident of doing good business during the event.
Geoffrey Okoth, an official at Homa Bay Giant Traders Association, said they have engaged the county government to let a few traders do business within the venue of the conference.
“We have also asked the county government to set aside space where fish traders can sell fried fish to delegates at the conference,” Okoth said.