Not again! Millions of shillings go up in smoke in Gikomba

Moses Angani with his right hand on his waist gazes in despair as his fellow traders gather the remains of burnt shoes and clothes.

He arrived at Gikomba market on Friday at  9am ready to sell his wares, only to be told that his goods were completely razed by fire .

Angani, 28, was unreachable the whole night after he forgot to charge his phone and never knew about the fire.

“I had just picked my bale of women's trousers and rubber shoes worth Sh200,000 yesterday [Thursday] after they were brought from Mombasa. The bale was to sustain me for a week but now my empire has been reduced to ashes," he said.

What was to be another normal day at work turned into pain for the traders.

Burnt clothes, wire mesh and pieces of scrap metals were being transported from the scene of the fire as traders attempted to salvage whatever they could.

Yet another mystery night fire destroyed goods worth hundreds of millions of shillings at Kenya's biggest open air market.

For more than 12 hours, fire fighters battled to put out the fire in some sections as traders attempted to save their properties.

Nick Kibera, said his brother who couldn't manage to speak for himself due to shock, lost Sh6 million worth of property to the fire. He took a loan to start the business.

He said the father of two had engaged in the mitumba business for almost two years and it was his only source of income to provide for his family.

“He has lost Sh6 million just like that. He has a very young family and he might even resort to being a thief or a “chokora” because he has no direction anymore. Who will compensate him or how will he even pay the loan?" Kibera posed.

Erick Zaro had just taken his first born daughter to secondary school on Tuesday but after the fire burnt to ashes his goods, he wondered how he will pay school fees for second term.

Curtains and bedsheets worth Sh 150,000 which Zaro usually restocks after two to three weeks perished.

“These Gikomba fires seem to be sabotage of the traders. Year after year there are fires and we lose a lot of money especially in this Covid-19 pandemic. I recently paid school fees for Form 1 admission and I don't know how my family will survive,” he said.

The traders said most fires at Gikomba occur at the beginning of the month around 5th after they have bought new bales. "Then we are left with nothing,” Simon Njuguna, a shoe trader, said.

“I sell denim jackets and jeans and I got a call from my friend saying that there was a fire. I got here at 3am but I couldn’t save my goods. I had just bought the bale last week and now it’s gone. It was about Sh300,000,” Njuguna said.

The traders appealed to the government to find a  lasting solution.

Fire was destroyed property in May and October 2014 and in  March 2012.

It had been said that loan defaulters at times set shops on fire and tell banks they lost the property. The businessmen burn them to claim insurance.

It had also speculated that the traders themselves burn the stalls to evict tenants and charge them higher rent.

In 2015, fire broke out twice in the market in May and June. In 2017, Gikomba market caught fire twice on October 6 and September 10.

In 2018, the market experienced three fire cases, which led to President Uhuru Kenyatta calling for investigations.

In June that year, 15 people died and at least 60 were injured when a section of the market dealing with timber and clothes was burnt.

Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan claimed the fire had been planned t to evict some traders.

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho said several people in the market appeared to have known of the arson in advance.

Despite the investigations no report was ever released.

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

Last year in February fire broke out in the mitumba section.

This year, several minor fires have occurred.

Edited by Henry Makori