Stop politicising Garissa market fire — governor

Garissa Governor Ali Korane on Sunday urged the political class and residents to stop the blame game and politicising the fire that razed the Garissa market.

He said he had planned to build a Sh150 million market but his critics torpedoed it by saying everyone would be evicted and the land would be leased to a private developer.

He also said the county would rebuild and help support victims after an assessment is completed.

Korane called for an end to speculating about what and who caused the fire and leave the work to investigative agencies.

The fire at the market, commonly referred to as Suuq Muqdi, affected more than 5,000s mall and middle-level business people.

The cause has not been established.

Some say it was deliberately started, others blame it on an electrical fault in one of the shops.

The market housed vegetable vendors, groceries, clothing shops, food kiosks, tailoring shops, electronic shops and many others.

Korane toured the market to ascertain the damage and addressed hundreds of traders on Sunday.

He said his administration will support the rebuilding of the market, which is the main source of livelihood for many people.

Korane said blame games will not solve matters and called on leaders to put their heads together, assist victims and find lasting solutions to perennial fires at the market.

“It's regrettable market merchants have become pawns and victims of political wars waged by malicious politicians who ride on their plight for political mileage,” the governor said.

He said some leaders who had the opportunity to serve failed to come up with solutions.

"But they are the first to shout the loudest and accuse us, pretending to be the ones offering solutions," he said.

"They are the first to pretend to be the ones offering solutions," Korane said.

The governor said he had planned to build a modern market for Sh150 million but said it did not take off as the issue had been politicised.

“The traders were misinformed and fed with false information that we were planning to evict them and lease the market to private developers. This was not true," he said.

On Friday, Korane met officials of the Market Association led by chairman Billow Bashir to deliberate on the viable ways of help victims.

He asked the committee to compile a list of victims from more than 1,000 stalls and determine their priorities.

“I want to give assurance we will give necessary support to victims in accordance with their needs as soon as enumeration and assessment is completed," he said.

(Edited by V. Graham)