ROSE AKINYI ODHIAMBO

Kibuye Market fish trader who raised nine children on tilapia and trust

With deep sorrow and humble acceptance of God's will we announce the passing of ROSE AKINYI ODHIAMBO, Kibuye Market trader and treasurer of Dala Women Savings Group, on 31st October 2026 at JOOTRH, Kisumu. Widow of the late Zablon Odhiambo; mother to Dennis, Beryl, Jacob, Millicent and others; mother-in-law to many; grandmother to eleven. Sister to Mama Nyar Seme and Joseph Onyango. Family and friends meet daily at Kobama, Kendu Bay, at 5.00 pm. Cortege leaves Kisumu Funeral Home on Friday 20th November for Requiem Mass at St. Peter's Catholic Church, Kendu Bay, on Saturday 21st November, then burial at home. M-Pesa Paybill 744310, Account AKINYI. Rest in peace.

Before the sun touched Lake Victoria, Rose Akinyi Odhiambo was already at Dunga beach, waiting for the boats. For thirty-eight years she was the first buyer at the water's edge and the last seller to leave Kibuye Market, and her stall of tilapia, omena and dried fish was so reliable that several hotels along Oginga Odinga Street sent their cooks to her door.

She was born in Kendu Bay in 1962, the eldest girl in a family of eight, and left school after Form Two when her father's boat was lost to a storm. She married Zablon Odhiambo in 1983, and when he passed away in 2009 she carried the household alone, selling fish by day and counting school fees by lamplight. All nine of her children finished secondary school. Two are now teachers, one is a clinical officer, and one drives a lorry for a Mombasa transporter who still asks after her.

Mama Akinyi kept her books in a red exercise book and her wisdom in sayings. She extended credit to widows and never wrote their names in the book. She served as treasurer of Dala Women Savings Group for twenty-seven years, and the group has never lost a shilling. On Sundays she wore her best lesso to Mass at St. Peter's, sang louder than anyone, and fried a tilapia for whoever sat at her table afterwards.

She loved Gor Mahia, listened to Ramogi FM at dawn, and could name every fisherman on the lake by the sound of his engine. She died peacefully at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital on 31 October 2026, after a short illness.

She is survived by her nine children, their spouses, and eleven grandchildren who learnt to fillet a fish before they could read.

“A fish sold on credit is a friend you will meet again.”