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Kisumu county government and Kenya Railways Corporation have signed a lease agreement to allow handing over of the Sh350 million Uhuru Business Park Complex market to the county.
The market can accommodate 10,000 businesses.
Kisumu city manager Abala Wanga on Wednesday said plans are underway for Housing and Urban Development PS Charles Hinga to tour the ultra-modern market and hand it over to the county government.
Wanga said traders who had been displaced to pave way for the expansion of the Kisumu Port and other development projects will be resettled in the market.
He said the market is ready to be occupied after the county and national government published a list of traders.
The project was started in 2019 after the Kenya Railways and the county government partnered and gave the 23 acres of land for the construction of the market.
Small-scale traders’ shops were demolished from Kisumu streets and Kenya Railways land.
The demolitions were to pave the way for the modernisation and rehabilitation of the Sh3 billion Kisumu port.
The land was surrendered by Kenya Railways to Kisumu to resettle the evicted traders.
On December 6, 2019, Kenya Railways MD Philip Mainga handed over the land title deed to former Nyanza regional commissioner James Kianda.
Currently, Wanga said the county government is undertaking biometric registration to ensure only genuine traders get space at the market.
“We each trader to have a stall. One trader and one stall rule will be applied,” Wanga said.
The resettlement of traders is expected to take 60 days.
“We are doing internal work, infrastructure and settlement of traders in the market before President Uhuru Kenyatta commissions it,” Wanga said.
The ultramodern business park also has an ECD centre where the traders' children can attend classes.
Wanga said traders to be relocated will have undergone a thorough validation process to make sure they were moved from the port and had their names gazetted.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
