Some Garissa market traders on Monday woke up to their demolished structures and destruction of their properties by municipal authorities.
The 2am Sunday exercise affected more than 500 small and middle-level traders at the market commonly known as suq Mukti whose shops are on road reserves.
Those affected were fresh fruits, vegetables, clothes and electronics traders.
Speaking to the press at the market, the traders lamented over what they termed as selective demolition saying the county only targeted one side that has semi permanent structures and left those with permanent ones.
In August a week after he was sworn in, Governor Nathif Jama held a meeting with the market committee where an agreement was reached to build access roads.
The meeting came in the backdrop of another inferno that razed down the market earlier in June where 5,000 traders were affected. Lack of access roads for water bowsers to access the market was blamed for the spread of the fire.
“We are extremely shocked and heartbroken by what we have just woken up to. We can't believe what we have just seen. This is not what was agreed between the market committee and the county,” Khadija Hussein Farah said.
“Our question is why the selective demolition when we agreed that it will be done on both sides of the road. Does it mean there are people who are more equal than others? We demand answers from those who carried out this exercise,” she said.
Nashehe Odha a mango trader, said it was wrong for the bulldozer to destroy their merchandise a few weeks after they incurred huge loses from the fire tragedy.
“We are even yet to recover from the huge loses we incurred following the inferno then here they are at it again. Some of the traders in this market are servicing loans from banks, so the question is how do we move from here? Who will compensate us?”
Patricia Ithanzu said while they support the construction of access roads to the market, they were against how the exercise was carried out.
“If they had good intentions, why did they decide to carry out the exercise in the middle of the night when nobody was around? Why did they also only target one side? This is very wrong and we demand for answers. This cannot go unchallenged,” she said.
However speaking on phone, Garissa county municipal manager Ismail Said wondered why traders were complaining when all along they supported the exercise to give room for the construction of access roads.
He said the demolition was as a result of consultations and agreements between the municipal and different stakeholders including the market committee, adding that prior to the demolition, sensitisation had been conducted.
“We have minutes for all the meetings that we held with the committee and all along they agreed to the 7 meters to allow for construction of access roads. It is unfortunate that some are now coming out to complain,” he said.
He added, “This was an executive order from the governor. Ours is to implement it. We did not do anything contrary of our agreement. We also did not destroy any property as alleged,” he said.
The national government in collaboration with the county is planning to install CCTVs, put a perimeter wall and more floodlights as well as well-equipped fire stations.
The market is already being manned by armed police officers.
-Edited by SKanyara
