More than 50 traders in Kitale lost property estimated to be worth Sh50 million after a fire razed their premises at Kamukunji market on Wednesday night.
Preliminary investigations revealed that one of the traders left a meal of githeri on a jiko which sparked a fire which spread to other shops.
Second-hand clothes and mobile phone dealers were the most affected in the inferno which took county fire brigade several hours to put off.
Traders interviewed said they lost property worth millions of
shillings adding that most of them had secured loans to start the businesses.
"I don’t know where to start from. All my toil is gone. I don’t know how I’m going to raise money to repay my loan yet I have children to take to school," Nancy Wamalwa, who sells second-hand clothes, said.
"This was my only source of livelihood," the trader, who lost property worth Sh25,000, said on Thursday.
Elsewhere, a fire believed to have been lit by a mad man razed down properties worth millions in Kiminini market on Tuesday night.
Nominated MCA Rogers Barasa asked the Trans Nzoia county government to establish a fire station in every sub-county to deal with such occurrences.
"With the rising cases of fire incidents, it will be prudent for the government to establish the fire stations to deal with such incidents."
