Kisumu Traders call for proper relocation before demolition
By Dickson Odhiambo
January 15, 2021
Kisumu Traders call for proper relocation before demolition
A SECTION of Traders in Kisumu City whose businesses have been demolished but have not been relocated to an alternative place want the County Government of Kisumu to ensure relocation is properly done before businesses premises are demolished.
Addressing the press in Kisumu today after complaining of rampant demolition by the County Government of Kisumu, the traders want the county Government to give them alternative places before their properties are demolished.
Led by the Chairman of the Kisumu Diaspora, Small Communities and Traders Milton Obote Kwach, the traders say are not against any form of meaningful development within Kisumu City and any World Bank funded Project but are worried by the manner in which the demolitions are done while small and medium and enterprises are not properly relocated.
They claim that the current relocation done to some traders are conducted in a skewed manner where only selected few traders have benefitted from such initiative.
“It has been an agony for the last one year in Kisumu because traders have been removed and not relocated in a proper manner. Until the last one week, the County Government of Kisumu realized that the public have now known their rights and have started using divide and rule to relocate some traders,” they say.
They say the tactic of divide and rule should never be used when relocating traders.
“I believe the World Bank has conditions when it fund projects where whoever is to be removed from his place of business and relocation should be done before being removed to pave way for development but this is not the case in Kisumu City as people are removed and no proper relocation plan,” they add.
However Kisumu City Acting Manager Michael Aballa Wanga during a consultative meeting with a section of Traders at Mama Grace Social Center yesterday assured them that the County Government of Kisumu have a robust relocation plan to the traders, adding that this is why the County Government has embarked on repossessing grabbed public land belonging to the Government.
Aballa says some of the traders will be relocated in the just repossessed public land as well as the Uhuru Complex Market which the National Government is constructing in collaboration with the County Government of Kisumu, adding that the New Complex Market will accommodate about 4,000 traders when completed by April this year.
Aballa says currently there is a new design for the Kibuye Open Air Market which was demolished to pave way for its new Construction, adding that the construction will take one year and upon completion it will accommodate about 10,000 traders.
He adds that a section of Jua kali Artisans have been relocated in a public land near Kisumu’s works yard after their business premises were demolished at an area known as Kapedo within the Jua Kali area.
Aballa has defended the demolition that targets the public lands that were grabbed saying this will create more spaces in relocating the affected traders.
“We are gearing towards repossessing all the grabbed public land belonging to the County Government of Kisumu and Kisumu County Governor Prof Anyang Nyong’o will not relent on this until it is fully done,” Aballa says
A section of traders were to hold a peace demonstration today in Kisumu so as to register their displeasure with the demolition which has carried by the County Government of Kisumu without having a proper relocation plan but Kisumu Central Officer Commanding Police Division Peter Katama disallowed the then impending peaceful demo while citing the Ministry of Health’s guideline on Covid 19 that prohibits gathering.
The Police also cited some suspected criminals might take advantage of the peaceful demo to loot businesses within the Central Business District among other reasons.
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