The Kisumu government has suspended the demolition of business kiosks owned by small-scale traders.
The suspension follows a consultative meeting held on Monday at City Hall on the ongoing operations.
In a statement, acting city manager Abala Wanga said the affected traders will be relocated to the Sh350 million national government-funded modern market currently under construction.
The traders have been urging the county to be considerate of their plight. Wanga said the affected traders are being registered and will be given priority at the Uhuru Business Park, which has a capacity of almost 10,000 stalls.
“Following the County Government Act, No 17 of 2012 and the Urban Areas and Cities Act No 13 of 2011, the management of Kisumu city has been removing illegal structures and extensions on residential government buildings within the city‚” he said.
Some of the structures had been built on top of sewer lines and on road reserves.
“The drainage situation on some estates like Migosi are in a worse situation because many houses have been built on top of these sewer lines,” he said.
Wanga asked owners of such houses to move with speed and remove them to minimise losses.
The management has also been recovering grabbed land, some of which had been earmarked for public institutions and parking areas.
Wanga said the recovery of grabbed land will continue until all the 52 illegally acquired parcels are recovered. Currently, the county government is in the process of recovering six of the plots.
“Four of these cases are currently in court. We wish to notify the public that the recovery process is three-pronged,” he said.
Wanga said cases of illegally acquired plots will be forwarded to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which will then help the county recover them.
He said buildings on pathways, playgrounds and wetland will be demolished upon expiry of notices issued.
Wanga directed county government staff who had allocated themselves stalls at Chichwa Market to surrender them to City Hall within one week for reallocation to needy traders or face disciplinary action.
He told traders who acquired more than one stall at the Sh37 million World Bank-funded Chichwa Market to surrender the excess and adhere to the one-trader-one-stall policy. Already, more than 700 displaced traders have been settled at the market.
“The county government values the traders and will do everything at its disposal to ensure they get areas to do business,” he said.
The city manager urged residents to work with the county government to expose land grabbers and support action to recover such pieces of land.
Wanga said the management has opened a complaint and Information desk at the Mama Grace Onyango Social Centre where anyone with complaints about the on-going operations should register their cases.
“We urge residents to use the information desk to report those who have grabbed public land,” he said.
He appealed to business people with kiosks along the 4.3km road from Fourems to Kenya-Re estate to remove them ahead of the major road works by the Kenya Urban Roads Authority.
“We continue to meet with leaders of affected traders to ensure dialogue and peaceful resettlement,” he said.
Wanga called on traders to ignore some individuals politicising the restructuring operations. He said such people do not mean well for the progress of the county, adding that they have been using money to incite some traders to stage demonstrations.