Property destroyed as part of Gikomba market goes up in flames

 

A huge fire swept through a section of Gikomba Market in Nairobi leaving many in pain.

Police and witnesses said the fire broke out from the section that handles shoes spreading fast on Friday morning.

Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said no injury had been reported by 7 am and that efforts to contain it were ongoing.

He said the fire broke out at about 1 am. The cause of the fire, which marks yet another tragedy at the market is yet to be established.

Multi-agency teams were deployed to the scene to help contain the spread of the fire.

“We have many teams including the public fighting to contain it now before we embark on the probe on the cause,” Bungei said.

There have been many fire incidents in the area prompting leaders to call for the same to be declared a disaster.

Kamkunji MP Yussuf Hassan has been leading campaigns to contain and address the incidents.

Gikomba Market, East Africa’s largest open-air market, has experienced unpredictable fires annually.

For decades, Gikomba market has been a source of income for many including food vendors, second-hand clothes traders, carpenters, business people, and many more.

However, for many years, they have constantly been in tears and encountered losses as fire mocked their success by razing down the market.

Gikomba has had its annual fires in the past years 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

On November 28, 2021, as  Nairobi was experiencing heavy rainfall, traders were once again crying in pain as commodities of unknown value were destroyed in another mysterious fire.

This was the second time that month and the fifth in 2021 that the traders were counting millions of shillings in losses after fire razed their commodities.

In February 2021, a mysterious fire visited the open-air market and another one in August.

On April 10, 2019, more than 2,000 structures were razed down as a section of the market was gutted by fire.

by CYRUS OMBATI