Rifts hit launch of refurbished Gikomba market
Section of representatives accuse colleagues of favouritism in allocation of new stalls at the facility.
Sharp divisions over allocation of spaces in the newly constructed Gikomba market have emerged.
With the facility almost complete, leaders are now engaged in a serious protracted battle that could even stop its official open-ing set for this month.
The People Daily has established that the current leaders are opposed to alleged scheme by their colleagues from previous regime to allocate the 308 spaces available on the basis of favouritism.
“We will not allow people to be allocated spaces, because they are related to the chairman or the leaders,” said John Githinji, a trader in the market.
Sources at Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) said preparations to have the market officially opened by the President have been put on hold to first solve the ongoing grievances.
The current regime, led by Simon Wanjohi, has also being accused of asking traders for Sh 100,000 to be allocated space.
Wanjohi is further accused of not giving priority to traders who lost their property in a fire that brought down one of the blocks.
“We are told the market will be open soon. But we are yet to understand how the limited spaces will be allocated. We only hear some people have already been given stalls,” claimed Lucy Wanjiru, another trader.
But in an interview with People Daily, Wanjohi dismissed the allegations, maintaining he has been following the right pro-cedure.
“We are good to go. I can assure you we are not going back anytime soon. This is a gift from President Uhuru Kenyatta. We will not allow anyone to bring in con-fusion,’ he said. In particular, he said the fight for Gikomba market began during the regime of former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, where they always pushed for a new market.
New market
“The reality is that we have suffered a lot in this market. We have been working with raw sewerage. We really pushed to have this market,” he said.
Despite intense lobbying, Wanjohi said his efforts then could not bear fruits as then then leadership led by Githinji were never optimistic.
Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga weighed in, saying the government had already gazzeted a list of people who will occupy the new market as guided by its leadership.
“We are aware of the grievances. We published a list of names given to us by the market leadership in daily newspapers. All the concerns are being handled by Deputy County Commissioner Kamukunji,” he said.
Fish traders and 81 traders in second floor will occupy the first floor. The third floor will go to sub-tenants.
Hawkers and Mpesa operators will be on the fourth floor while the fifth and sixth floors will be allocated to traders on a temporary basis before they and hawkers are given stalls in Phase Two.
Phase Two of the Gikomba market is expected to be two times the size of the first phase.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned city leaders against inciting traders to illegally occupy the five new city markets built to a tune of Sh2.2 billion.
The President said traders who had previously occupied the markets will be given first priority once he commissions them.
“Soon I will come here and open Mwariro market but I do not want to see any incitement on who will occupy where. We want to have a fair process to ensure everyone will have equal opportunity to occupy the stores,” he said.
Uhuru said once the original traders have occupied their market stores, the rest will be distributed through an open ballot supervised by government officials.
Last year in August, the government began balloting for four out of the five modern markets.
The six-storey Mwariro market has 360 stalls. Some 318 will be al-located to the original traders and the remaining 41 balloted.
Karandini market, which is a two storey building, has 204 stalls.
The World Bank, through the Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement Project, funded both Karandini and Mwariro markets.
The State Department of Housing and Urban Development oversaw construction.Westlands market is expected to accommodate about 3,000 traders.
The project was established in 2008 but stalled for nine years. It was revived in 2017/18 Financial Year.
