It’s mid-morning at the City Park market along Limuru Road in Nairobi. In the stalls, traders have set up their groceries in stands.
A shopkeeper negotiates the price of a phone nearby, as another, with sweaty brows, overalls and black gumboots forces his wheelbarrow, full of vegetable waste, forward. Some traders, on a commercial break, chat animatedly about politics as they sip their tea in a hotel.
Eight years ago, this was a dream burnt down by a night fire. Before then, traders who could not afford branded umbrellas and polythene to cover their stalls and produce braved the sun as some of their products withered. If rain fell, traders covered their produce and fled for cover. And then there were the non-existent toilets, drainage, and parking space.
While on a market tour, Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga explained that the government had spent 142 million in construction of the market, which now hosts 2,000 traders.
“We relocated the traders from the open air market into the stalls, constructed a parking lot, then constructed drainages and toilets to bring dignity to the traders. As one of the biggest fresh produce markets in the country, we will construct a loading and offloading bay to minimize spoilage of produce, and a car wash for our youth to earn income,” said Ps.
59th new market
The market, said the PS, is the 59th new market to be constructed in the country, as a part of an ongoing project that has also seen 33 other markets get rehabilitated.
At Gikomba market, traders, who have so long decried market fires that have led to lsss of lives and property, explained that the new market, a six story building, has allowed them to trade peacefully.
“Initially, we were trading on stalls that had been constructed on top of sewage. Water systems were bad, and we were so scared of fires that we never slept peacefully,” said Daniel Owino, the market’s chairperson.
“Our fish traders now have a clean place to process their fish, and our women and youth have found a place to work in peace. We have even seen repeat customers,” he added.
“This new market houses 2,000 traders, and cost Sh490 million to construct. We have another one that is 75 per cent complete, and will accommodate between 3,000 and 35, 000 traders,” said Mr Hinga.
Ms Anne Mutahi, the adviser to the President on matters of small and medium enterprises, said there are plans to conduct programmes where traders can engage in value addition. BY DAILY NATION