Recreation trumps revenue in Kisumu traders’ eviction
A man walks past a heap of fruits left behind after a grader flattened stalls at Oile market in Kisumu last week.Traders lost goods worth millions of shillings. PHOTO | JACOB OWITI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Kisumu county administration last weekend evicted traders from Oile market, which lies on a 1976 gazetted recreational park.
The county says the market was closed on sanitation grounds and for obstruction of ongoing construction of a bypass, but traders say they were not given ample time or an appropriate place to relocate.
The county government of Kisumu is under fire from critics and traders for pulling down a market located on a recreational park in the central business district.
The county administration evicted traders from a 1976 gazetted recreational park saying the market was closed on sanitation grounds and for obstruction of ongoing construction of a bypass. The county also says the road is under the Northern Corridor Transport Improvement Project and is expected to ease congestion caused by trailers heading to east and central Africa via Kisumu.
“The county government pulled down stalls at the Oile Market following complaints that it was delaying the construction of this highway that stands to ease flow of traffic to Busia Border via Kisumu; the road was considered to be poised to bring more business through Kisumu as gateway to the EAC markets,” said acting city manager Doris Ombara.
The park, home to more than 400 traders who work with over 7,000 people driving various fast moving goods, has now been flattened. The traders who spoke to the Business Daily said they were pained by the move by the county to relocate them without offering ample time and adequate space to sell their wares.
Some said they were servicing loans amounting to millions of shillings. Josephine Achieng, a fish monger, had just taken a loan of Sh100,000 from K-Rep Bank barely three days before the market was demolished.
She says she used the money to pay her debts and increase her stock only for this to be swept under the rubble of tractors that descended on the market on that fateful Friday night. “I lost goods worth Sh80,000. Police are not listening to our pleas of obtaining an abstract of the destroyed goods. Even our local leaders have refused to address us on this matter. How will we repay these loans?” asked Ms Achieng’.
Her counterpart Hellen Okong’o also recounted how she lost 450 kilos of fish. She had just sourced a loan of Sh300,000 from the Kenya Women Finance Trust with her business as collateral.
“I have not even serviced the loan and my stock is no more. Let the county government pay us or allow us to go back to the park where our customers know us,” she said.
Another trader, Lilian Oketch, lamented that she will not be able to meet the Sh70,000 a month required to service a Sh1.2 million loan for a PSV matatu. Another resident, Rose Nyambok, says she had sold in the market for the last 20 years and had never witnessed such destruction.
She said the current problem started when traders, who were not designated to sell in the park, streamed in making the management of the park impossible. “It’s the infiltration of the other businesses namely second-hand clothes dealers, grocers and hotels that made things get ugly in the market. This made the county government find it easy to do away with us,” said Ms Nyambok.
Hundreds of traders lost assorted wares in the destruction since they operated under a centralised storage system. The county continues to lose Sh60,000 in daily market fees collected from traders.
But county leaders say the decision had to be taken. Ms Ombara said the market had become an eyesore in the expanding lakeside city owing to its location in the central business district.
The official added that the market had delayed construction of the Kisumu-Kisian bypass following complaints by the contractor — Sheladia Associates — that the high traffic around the place was interfering with their work. In a letter dated August 8, resident engineer Philip Mbugua from Sheladia Associates, said the human traffic at the market, the mushrooming of kiosks, dropping of passengers by motorists and dumping of garbage on the road hindered their work.
The contractor said they were expected to complete the project by December 21. “To enable the roadwork to be carried out as scheduled, we request you to ensure the kiosks are removed,” said Mr Mbugua.
Ms Ombara says protests marred the smooth transition strategy laid down by the county government. The assembly’s committee on tourism supported the demolition that sparked riots in the town.
In a letter to the county assembly, Ms Ombara said several meetings were held with leaders of the traders over the eviction. “Besides, we visited the market in the company of the governor and the Cabinet to confirm the availability of space for the traders at various locations convenient for them,” said Ms Ombara.
Governor Jack Ranguma said there were concerns about loss of revenue but the end result of restoring the park mattered more.
“Kisumu has three gazetted parks of which Oile was one of them ... The city must provide these facilities and we had to take the decision head-on,” said Mr Ranguma, adding that local leaders should shun politics over the matter. “It is the same politicians who have been on the forefront of criticism over the dirt in the city following the presence of hawkers in the CBD.”
The chairman of the Kisumu business community Israel Agina dismissed critics of the demolition saying traders must also appreciate city bylaws.
“We must look at the bigger picture. The industrialisation bid of Kisumu has more of an external focus than letting challenges of waste management stand in the way of bidding for investments,” Mr Agina said.
