The Siaya International Trade and Investment Conference (SITICO) had been billed as an event that would lead to the economic turnaround of the county, and for months, top county officials had crisscrossed the country inviting potential investors.
As the organisers worked late into the night to ensure its success and even managed to win the confidence of top investors and senior government officials, little did they know that fate had other plans that would eventually hit the organisers hard on the D-day.
On the very day that the event was to open to the public at the Siaya National Polytechnic grounds, a man who was poised to preside over its closing ceremony, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, decided to close it before it could start.
He did not do it officially, but through his death in the far land of India.
Recalling the events of the day, Siaya County Secretary Elizabeth Adongo says that 15th October, 2025, was to mark the culmination of months and weeks of planning that saw SITICO organisers visit and talk to different planners.
“On 22nd September, 2025, we met Raila Odinga at his Capitol Hill office led by Governor James Orengo, and we appraised him on our status of preparedness,” said the county secretary, adding, “This was one of the many meetings he had had with the leadership of the county in regard to this conference.”
Adongo says that the former prime minister had already confirmed that President William Ruto would officially open the conference on 16th October, 2025, while he, Raila, will officially close it on 17th October.
The county secretary says that on 15th October 2025, they went to the venue early to ensure that everything was alright. This was the day meant to kick-start the conference, with discussions around the investment opportunities in the county.
A good number of invited guests, among them senior private sector gurus, had arrived and taken their place at the VVIP pavilion when word started going round that all was not well, she adds.
“There were rumours, and you could see at the VVIP pavilion that they were shocked,” says the county secretary, adding that outside, not everybody appeared to have gotten wind of the rumours that were fast spreading as some of the exhibitors were still doing last-minute preparation setup.
Adongo says that the official announcement of the death altered everything. “Immediately the official statement was released, all hell broke loose,” she says, adding, “People were wailing and crying everywhere, and the guests we were holding in the lounge were left wondering what next.”
She says that despite the shock, an immediate decision had to be made, however painful. The SITICO venue had changed from a conference cum exhibition area to a venue where people of all walks of life congregated to mourn Raila.
After consultation amongst the county leadership that included officials from the national government, it became obvious that the event could not go on.
“That was the day Siaya stood still – the day the world stopped, and it stopped in Siaya,” recalls Adongo.
All the industry captains who had come and the investors somehow had a link with Raila and were all in agreement that the event could not proceed, but we promised to come back in his honour, she added.
The county secretary says that despite the last-minute setback occasioned by the death, the county achieved milestones as a result of Raila’s involvement in the earlier preparations of the event that included identifying bankable projects and potential partners who could facilitate or help navigate the investment world.
Through Raila’s efforts, she says, the organisers had walked a long journey and even had memoranda of understanding that were to be signed on the day he passed on.
“In terms of investment and what it did to Siaya, today we see the progress,” says Adongo, adding that some of the huge projects in the energy sector, like the proposed nuclear plant earmarked for Siaya, were profiled and sold as the potential investments that could help turn the county’s economy.
“Today we have investors in the sugar sector, who are working on cane development and putting up factories. These and many others in the agricultural sector and blue economy are as a result of the profiling we made,” she says.
The county secretary says that despite the hiccup, Raila’s hand in the preparations of the Siaya International Trade and Investment conference left the county at a better place, adding that the county was still holding discussions at sector levels to have another conference at an opportune time.
Adongo says that as a son of the soil, Raila’s legacy in the county strides several sectors, from culture and heritage to economics and governance.
“Devolution is his legacy, without which we would not be here,” she says, adding, “The growth we have witnessed in the blue economy – projects that he championed around Lake Victoria, such as the port of Kisumu and satellite ports in Usenge, K’okach, Luanda, Kotieno, Wichlum and many others – bear his footprint.
Adongo says that the general infrastructure development in the lake region that has seen several roads constructed to open up the area also forms part of the many Raila’s initiatives for the region.
By Philip Onyango
