Kisumu County has started building a market for traders who were recently evicted to pave way for the expansion of Kisumu port and reorganise the city.
The county government is constructing stalls on a two-acre parcel of land on the backstreet of Oginga Odinga Street.
Speaking at the site yesterday, City manager Dorris Ombara said the Sh15 million markets will partially eat into Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground.
At least 36 traders were driven out of Lwang’ni Beach and 44 others ejected from a stretch bordering the Railway quarters near the port
Reorganisation of the central business district ahead of the November 2021 African cities summit has displaced 1190 hawkers.
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The traders were temporary lease tenants on Kenya Railways land most of which was illegally allotted to individuals. Those from the CBD were operating from illegal roadside structures.
Ms Ombara said they would put up 1300 five by six feet stalls complete with sanitation amenities in the next five days to house the 1290 traders as a temporary measure. The hoteliers will, however, have larger grounds she said.
“Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o has instructed us to find an alternative location and we have identified this as a temporary measure to settle the affected traders,” she said.
Long-term solution
Ombara said the county government will build a permanent on a 23-acre land donated by Kenya Railways for that will house 10, 000 hawkers currently operating on the street pavements and makeshift structures as a long- term solution for the traders.
The current structures will have metal-plated walls and will be dislodged once the main market is complete.
Ombara said the market will be floodlit to promote 24-hour economy dreams.
The informal traders are self-employed and have their livelihoods so the governor has seen it befitting and a priority to settle them,”
She said the affected traders had been serialised and their details captured in a database that will help in ensuring the exercise is not hijacked by cartels.
“We are going ahead to do the biometrics so that we don’t have double occupancy,” she said.
Ombara said it is only the permanent market that will deal with hawkers menace in the lakeside city and allow the county to set up the CBD as a non-motorised shopping and service complex, in line with dreams of preserving the Asiatic architecture as a tourism product.
