Traders who got stalls at the ultra-modern Uhuru business market complex in Kisumu have until midnight to occupy allocated spaces.
Kisumu City manager Abala Wanga announced on Tuesday that traders who were offered spaces at the new market and fail to occupy the allocated space by the close of the deadline should consider the offer cancelled.
Over 3,000 traders benefited from the mass resettlement effected by the City management.
These are traders who have been operating at Nyamlori, Apindi street, Garrisa Lodge areas, and Winam Booksellers.
The city manager said a statutory notice for the mass resettlement was issued to the targeted traders on February 20, 2023.
"The county government of Kisumu, through the City of Kisumu is committed to supporting and empowering traders," Abala said.
The city manager noted it was the reason the county government in partnership with the national government invested in the establishment of the ultra-modern market to accommodate the informal traders and create dignified trading spaces for them.
"We have been conducting public participation with specific interested groups/traders and we finalised the process of mass resettlement of the traders from those areas we have identified," he said.
"We issued a notice to all the beneficiaries of the resettlement action plan process to ensure they occupy their allocated spaces by March 15, failure to which they should consider their allocations cancelled," Abala said.
He said that council askaris have been given firm instructions to ensure areas, where these traders used to operate from, are vacated immediately after the expiry of the notice.
"We have reliable information that some of the traders picked letters notifying them of being considered for space in the new market but are still not willing to move from their current bases. We will deal firmly with such traders," he said.
Most of the traders who were forced to move from areas such as Lwang'ni beach, Win mart, Akamba line areas and along Oginga Odinga street, Jomo Kenyatta avenue have since moved to the business complex.
They were displaced by the regeneration projects which included the revamped Kisumu port and the rehabilitation of the standard meter railway that saw spaces that belonged to Kenya railway reclaimed to pave way for the projects.
