•Seeking to solve the solution, Nairobi County Government and the National Government sorted to build a new five-storey Gikomba market at a cost of Sh3 billion.
•Gikomba Market, East Africa’s largest open-air market, has experienced unpredictable fires annually.
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
Another day, another fire at the Gikomba market, leaving the public with unanswered questions.
Who or what is behind the fire are two questions that the government has failed to address.
As Nairobi was experiencing heavy rainfall on Sunday dawn, traders were once again crying in pain as commodities of unknown value were destroyed in another mysterious fire.
This is the second time this month and the fifth this year that the traders are counting millions of shillings in losses after fire razed their commodities.
Early this month, when a fire broke out in the market, none of the government even the Nairobi leaders raised concerns or suggested any interventions.
This has left Kenyans wondering who will bring an end to the fires and protect the biggest open-air market in the country.
“The government found people rich and left them poor. A government which married the opposition to oppressing its people,” said Muturi Karanja. “Why is the government silent about Gikomba fires? Hao wanabiashara wanaumia,” said Kennedy Owino.
“With Gikomba burning multiple times and the police are yet to figure out who's doing it says a lot,” Mitianga John added.
Gikomba Market, East Africa’s largest open-air market, has experienced unpredictable fires annually.
“You can't tell me that the government can't have measures to curb the Gikomba fires unless.....your guess is as good as mine. Blame the government,” says Jane Mueni.
For decades, the market has been a source of income for many including food vendors, second-hand clothes traders, carpenters, business people, and many more.
However, for many years, they have constantly been in tears, encountered losses as fire mocked their success by razing down the market.
In February this year, a mysterious fire visited the open-air market and another one in August.
At that time, the government gave orders for the installation of security cameras, giving the contractor seven days to complete the work.
This was after Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, NMS Director-General Mohammed Badi and Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan visited the area.
Two months later on October 19, 2021, another fire razed several stalls in the market and the same incident occurred on November 8, 2021.
Early this month, the court gave the Nairobi Metropolitan Services a green light to expand the Pumwani Majengo Health Centre.
However, to pave way for the expansion, a section of secondhand clothes traders will have to be evicted.
This means they will lose trading places which they have occupied for over 40 years.
On April 10, 2019, more than 2,000 structures were razed down as a section of the market was gutted by fire.
In 2018, the market experienced three fire cases which led to President Uhuru Kenyatta calling for investigations into the fires.
In June, 15 people died and at least 60 injured when a section of the market dealing in timber and clothes was burnt.
The same year in October, another fire was experienced in the market.
In 2017, Gikomba market caught fire twice on October 6 and September 10.
In 2015, fire also broke out twice in the market in the months of May and June.
The fire was also experienced twice in 2014 in the months of May and October and once in the month of March in 2012.
Three causes
Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja had earlier given three reasons why Gikomba market is prone to fires.
According to the lawmaker, the fire is started by those who want to grab the market, who think they have title deeds of the place.
The second reason for the fire is the traders themselves.
“Some of these traders burn the place in order to be compensated by the insurance after they cannot restock,” Sakaja noted.
The third reason, he said, is accidental.
He gave an example of how some of the street families that sleep at the market light fire to keep themselves warm and sometimes they might fall asleep and the fire accidentally spreads.
In 2018, the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti was asked by the Senator to investigate the fire that locals claimed started from four different places within an expansive timber yard, in what he said was “an outright case of arson.”
He revealed he has never received a report on the fire incident, which left 18 people dead and 70 others injured.
Seeking to solve the solution, Nairobi County Government and the National Government sorted to build a new five-storey Gikomba market at a cost of Sh3 billion to end all the fire incidences.