Why lack of space threatens to choke business at bus park

Congestion at the Kisumu's bus park. PIC BY COLLINS ODUOR

Kisumu; Kenya: Barely a month after the Oile market traders were evicted, Kisumu is grappling with lack of space to expand its main bus park.

The traders, who had illegally occupied a recreational park opposite the bus park, are now competing for limited space in the busy bus park.

Majority of the traders have rejected plans by City Manager Doris Ombara to relocate them to markets in the sprawling slums of Manyatta and Nyalenda.

There is lack of order at the bus park as hooting matatus attempt to gain entry against the heavy traffic of tuk tuks, motorcycles, bicycles, rowdy touts, travellers, hawkers and traders.

Thousands operate mini-shops within the bus park but the Oile traders have also pitched tent there and occupied every space they can find as they sell everything from fresh vegetables and cooked food to clothes and shoes.

Temporary closure of the Kisumu-Nyamasaria road, off the Nairobi highway, to allow for construction has complicated matters for matatu operators.

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dump garbage

Heavy road construction machinery and mountains of soil abandoned by the contractors for over three months now hinder the movement of vehicles out of the bus park.

It is here that the evicted Oile traders now dump garbage. 

Pius Oduor, the chairman of Kisumu Ahero Mowouk Transport Company, says majority of the evicted traders have occupied parts of the bus park and this is proving quite a challenge for matatu operators.

"It is quite a challenge. The traders are yet to be given space to sell their wares. And the city management has failed to collect accumulating garbage, which has become an eyesore here," Mr says Oduor.

Some town service vehicles that should be doing rounds in town and residential areas park at the bus station as operators wait for peak hours.

Ms Ombara says the county government intends to expand the Jubilee market by developing it into a single-storey structure to accommodate the traders as a long-term measure to free up the bus park.

"The market is being designed," she says.