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Sakaja initiates process to douse perennial fires in Gikomba market

Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 07:10 | By
Sakaja Gikomba
Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja at Gikomba market. PHOTO/Courtesy

The Nairobi County Government has initiated the process that will see the numerous fires in Gikomba market are dealt with completely.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja who spoke after touring the market two days after a fire was reported said the county government will immediately commence building a fire station at the market.

Sakaja said the county will thereafter have the land surveyed and a title issued.

“Gikomba is public land and we will build a wall around it. It belongs to the people of Nairobi and we will defend it to the end from grabbers,” he said.

Interestingly, the intervention by Sakaja comes after calls by the government last year it will invest in a call centre to gather and act on intelligence reports on persistent fires.

Kamukunji MP appealed to the traders to make space for construction of access roads so that fire fighting trucks can reach scenes of fire.

“These regular fires should end and we are asking the governments of President William Ruto and Johnson Sakaja to find a lasting solution,” Yusuf said.

 The area MCA said the county government should station two fire engines in Gikomba even before the proposed fire station is constructed.

 He said residents of Bondeni and Gorofani estates that border Gikomba should be given priority in the affordable housing programme as they too get affected by the fires.

The infernos at Gikomba market have stubbornly bloated every year’s calendar with pain, anguish and losses worth millions of shillings as fires ravage business structures in the largest mitumba market in Kenya. In the past decade,

Gikomba has burnt every year except 2011, 2013 and 2016. The market has burnt at least 10 times from 2010 with three of the incidents taking place in June of 2015, 2018 and 2020.

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