Nakuru County government has issued an eviction notice to over 100 traders operating at the Naivasha Old market.
The move is meant to pave way for the construction of the Sh150 million new market with affected traders vowing to oppose the move.
This comes two days after the county government demolished several buildings that had encroached on road reserve in the ongoing programme to upgrade the market and feeder roads.
The first phase saw over 200 traders relocated with promise that the other lot would shift once a section of the facility was done.
But in a twist of events, the county and the contractor have decided to evict all the traders so that works on the Sh150m market could start.
According to Viwandani MCA Eric Gichuki, the latest move was against the deal entered between the county and the traders.
He said that there was no space to relocate the traders warning that this could create a new problem around the lakeside town.
“The traders have been issued with notices to shift but this is unfair as the original agreement was half of the traders would move out and the other group would follow on completion of the first phase,” he said.
Gichuki said that he fully backed the ongoing construction of the modern market but was quick to add that the issue of affected traders should be addressed.
“Currently there is an impasse over the fate of the affected traders as there is no space in the town to relocate them,” he said.
One of the traders only Nderitu said that they would oppose the planned forceful eviction by the contractor and the county.
He said that they were aware of the planned exercise adding that the county government had lied to them before the project kicked off.
“Half of the traders moved to the main market with an agreement that the other half would pave way for the works once the construction of phase one was complete,” he said.
On Friday, county bulldozers descended on illegal structures on road reserves and brought them down after the expiry of an eight month notice.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the Naivasha public park has kicked off after the county government released Sh20m for the works.
According to Gichuki, the funds would be used to plant trees, fence the park that is located within the CBD and constructs seats and washrooms.
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