Traders at the famous Toi market in Nairobi’s Kibera area are counting losses after fire razed down stalls in an early morning incident.
Property worth millions of shillings was razed during the inferno said to have started on Sunday at around 2am.
Even though the real cause of the fire remains unclear, the residents suspect it would have started from a possible electric fault.
Fire engines from the county government arrived at the scene in an effort to try put out the fire that reduced property to ashes.
This is not the first time the market is going down in flames. The market has become prone to frequent fires, despite government promising an end to the infernos.
In November 2021, a fire razed down a section of stalls at the market, leaving traders counting heavy losses.
In 2019, two fires broke in the market in a span of four years after the 2014 fire outbreak that destroyed property of unknown value.
Lack of access roads have also been faulted for the slow response of fire services.
In 2018, the market experienced three fire cases, which led the then President Uhuru Kenyatta to call for investigations into the incident and for culprits to be brought to book.
In June that year, 15 people died and at least 60 injured when a section of the market dealing with timber and clothes was burnt.
