For many Kisii traders, a brush with death in the scramble for customers at the roadside Daraja Mbili Market in Kisii was a weekly occurrence.
Flash floods could, with abandon, wash the goods down into the nearby rivers.
On occasion, motorbikes rammed into teeming roadside crowds, causing injury and loss of lives and property.
But market chairman Denis Nyangwara told the Star that dark past is behind them.
Today, a three-storey massive structure stands on the bank of River Nyakomisaro to give the traders a conducive business environment.
The new-look modern market has several amenities among them a wholesale section, loading bays, cold rooms, a police post, cyber café, ATM, offices and kiosks.
Nyaboke Momanyi, an onion seller said they now attend to their customers within a clean and environment unlike in the past. “This is a godsend. As traders, we are happy,” she told the Star.
Outgoing Kisii county commissioner Stephen Kihara said the Daraja Mbili market was built to shelter traders from the elements and boost their productivity.
“It was definitely not easy for them to do business in the mud, and when there was no rain it was dust,” he said.
Kisii Governor James Ongwae said plans are underway to have the market run daily like Kongowea in Mombasa and not on Thursday and Monday only.
“We believe two days a week are not sufficient. Because of the dynamism of our people who rely on businesses to eke a living, we may have it run daily in the near future,” he told the Star.
Ongwae said many traders suffered losses of their merchandise from theft as well.
“What the government envisaged was to create a one-stop centre where shoppers and traders converge and do exchanges,” the governor said.
Daraja Mbili was reportedly the second-largest open-air market in Nyanza after Kibuye in Kisumu.
The project cost Sh200 million and was implemented by the national and Kisii county governments.
Transport CAS Chris Obure said the market will help youths do business in the face of shrinking white-collar jobs.
The market currently accommodates 1,200 traders. Some have demanded an extra wing because thousands of traders turn up at the market each week.
Kisii county markets director John Mengo said up to 20,000 traders turn up to do business at the market every Monday and Thursday.
“We host traders who come from as far as Tanzania and Isebania,” he told the Star.
Ongwae said an additional wing of the market will be set up soon to accommodate cloth sellers who are yet to resume work following Covid-19 restrictions on the sale of mitumba.
“The contractor is moving to site soon and is under instruction to ensure the project is speeded up,” Ongwae said.
He said traders deserve dignified environments to undertake businesses.
“How can you attract youth to roadsides to do business? It is with this in mind that the proposal to come up with this structure came up and we thank the national government for collaborating with us to achieve this,” he said.
He, however, projected that more money would be needed to refurbish the entire market region.
“Being an ambitious programme, Sh600 million may be ultimately required to do all the work,” the county boss said.