Kisumu City Manager vows not to allow cartels to block upgrading of Kibuye Market

Kisumu City Manager Dorice Ombara address the press in Kisumu where she has warned cartels who are trying to blocking the upgrading of Kibuye Open Air market-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

June 9, 2020

Kisumu City Manager vows not to allow cartels to block upgrading of Kibuye Market

The Management of Kisumu has vowed not to allow any form of cartel from blocking the County Government of Kisumu from fully implementing the refurbishment of Kibuye Open Air Market through the Kisumu Urban Project.

Kisumu City Manager Dorice Ombara says time for the cartels who have been operating within the City and are busy blocking the development in various parts of the city due to their selfish interest is long gone.

Addressing the press in Kisumu to react on the issue of Kibuye Open Air Market after it has been completely demolished, Ombara said the open air market is one of the three markets within Kisumu City that was earmarked for upgrading through the Kisumu Urban Project with donor funding from French Development Agency {AFD}.

Other two Markets which were also identified for improvement include Otonglo Market in Kisumu West Constituency and Jubilee Market next to the Kisumu Main bus terminus.

Ombara says the issue of the Market has been outstanding for some time, adding that it had been identified under Kisumu Urban Project for improvement, modernization and to take care of the issue that prevails.

“Funding for design and actual construction work had come for the projects under the Kisumu Urban Project for the three markets,” Ombara says.

She says already shs 49 million has been used to design through Dama Consultants Company which came up with a design, Environmental and Strategic Impact Assessment and a relocation action plan for the traders within the market, adding that they agreed that the traders would move out bit by bit to allow the construction to go on.

Ombara says after all the plans had been put in place, the work did not commence on the 12-acre Kibuye Open Air market because the traders moved to court and got injunction last week on Friday, adding that her office has not received such court injunction.

Ombara says the Traders have refused that the City Management do beacons that shows the boundary of the market, adding that they also don’t want the market to have the boundary walls as well as establishing the extent of the market.

“We have now lost the opportunity from the donor because they have said they cannot go beyond since there is no mapping of the market done and the extent of the expanse of the market done and sign off. This is how we lost this opportunity of spending about shs 380 million under the French for Kibuye Market development and this is a very painful scenario,” Ombara adds.

Ombara says there had still been an opportunity to improve Kibuye Market through the World bank road project through the Kenya National Highways Authority where a Corporate Social Responsibility after building Mamboleo-Kisumu Boys Road claiming that the traders have rejected this as well.

Ombara says with the Corona pandemic, re-organization has been done to re-locate the traders from Kibuye Market which has been done to de-congest it.

The City Manager says after that some basics were done that include fencing the market after identifying the beacons, adding that there is already shs 197 million for the Market refurbishment which must be utilized.

She has maintained that where the demolition took place on Sunday night is the offloading and loading points as well as parking.

She says the City Management will appeal against the court injunction following the law, adding that Kibuye Open Air Market is a property of County Government of Kisumu.

Ombara says he reads a lot of politics in the Kibuye Market Saga, adding some opponents of the current Governor are the ones who are sponsoring some cartels to block the improvement of the market.

“We will not allow any form of cartel to take control of Kisumu City and block us from implementing projects,” Ombara further says.

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