Traders suffered losses on Monday after a Nairobi building at the centre of an ownership dispute was demolished.
The building on Ronald Ngala Street housed about 30 stalls stocked with clothes, shoes and beauty products.
The affected traders blamed the county saying officers should have allowed them to remove their property.
But City Hall Director of Operations Peter Mbaya said inspectorate officers had nothing to do with the demolition.
"Police had a court order to bring the building down," Mbaya said.
Central OCPD Robinson Thuku said they implemented a court order produced by a developer who wants to put up a building at the same spot.
"The case had been in court for almost five years. After winning, the developer acquired an order to demolish the building."
Thuku said the traders had been asked to leave but that they ignored the directive.
Some of the traders confirmed that they had been asked to vacate the building but said they were not given specific timelines.
"They could have told us yesterday and we would have removed our items from the stalls. This is a great loss," Jacob Mungai said.
"We were here yesterday and business went on as usual.The police could have done the demolition without damaging items," Hanna Muthoni said.
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