Sakaja refutes claims of Wakulima Market being sold

Nairobi Governor Johson Sakaja during an interview on Spice FM. [Screengrab]

Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja has maintained his stand on the plans to decongest the city traders refuting claims of plans to sell the famous Wakulima Market.

Speaking on Monday during an interview on Spice FM, Sakaja defended the decision to decongest the market noting that it was a consensus reached after discussions with the traders.

“We engaged these traders that we have known for many years. Let's decongest this place because it causes a lot of traffic. People have to walk on the road, and it's not what it's supposed to be,” Sakaja said.

He noted that originally, the market was to hold 1,200 traders and 92 parking lots for wholesalers.

But today the capacity has gone up with almost 5,000 traders and 300 trucks.

The county government now wants to relocate the traders to Kang’undo market which the governor says has a larger capacity.

He further explained that the government has robust plans to construct more markets with a maximum budget in a bid to decongest the city.

“It's going to be a huge market. We're spending less than Sh245 million. It will be an open space with cooling and storage facilities, proper parking, water, and electricity,” he added.

Sakaja further also bashed Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for claims of advocating for his popularity in the city during the 2022 campaigns.

He admitted to the fact that they both campaigned in the city but for different positions marking such kind of politics as “backward and inexperienced”.

‘We were a team campaigning, you know. At that time, he was just a one-time MP in Mathira, and I was a sitting senator of the city, having been an MP as well in the city,” he said.

Sakaja went ahead to reveal the genesis of the feud between him and Gachagua.

“The first thing that created a problem with Deputy President was when I got in, I started broad-based kind of leadership. I put in CECs from ODM and Wiper. I mixed them with UDA  chief officers. At that time, I was the only person possibly who, in a day, would talk to President Ruto and then talk to Kalonzo and talk to Raila and come back to President Ruto,” he revealed.

He said that he came up with the broad-based leadership in the county to contain city politics for the sake of development.