More pain for Gikomba traders as structures demolished overnight under police supervision

Several traders at Gikomba market in Nairobi are counting losses after their structures were demolished overnight under heavy police supervision.

Over 1000 families that lived inside the market told Citizen Digital that the bulldozers arrived Friday night and they were ordered to immediately vacate the area, leaving them to spend the night in the cold.

However, according to Kamukunji deputy commissioner Moses K-rilan, the government-sanctioned demolitions were aimed at preventing further destruction by collapse of some of the relatively weaker structures.

Moses said the Nairobi Metropolitan Service intends to build new long-lasting buildings and structures not prone to collapse.

This comes just two days after property of unknown value was early Thursday morning destroyed when a fire broke out and razed a section of the market.

The cause of the inferno could not be immediately established, however, Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho suggested that private developers seeking to grab the expansive market area are to blame for the incident.

The PS also reiterated plans by the government to relocate the Gikomba traders to other markets being developed in other parts of the city.