The fact that traders at Gikomba mean business has never been contested. Approximately 3.9 kilometres from the Central Business District is the business hub that not only serves Kenya but the East African region.
Every minute, hundreds of people are flock in or out for one purpose – to do business. But choose any route to access the expansive market and your fate is sealed – confusion reigns.
A worrying trend that has seen days turn to years as policy makers promise to reverse it by building a modern market which is accessible and proper amenities, but has remained just that – a failed promise.
A source of living for thousands of families in a country where unemployment has hit worrying levels, the market is struggling from perennial challenges that range from lack of proper planning, basic amenities and frequent fires that have not only left property worth millions of shillings destroyed but also claimed lives.
“It is a day at a time in Gikomba. We are not assured of even the next minute,” Maureen Atieno, a fish vendor at the market said.It is a fear that has become part of life for them, but this has not killed their working spirit.
A fire incident at the market on Wednesday night caught many off-guard, but luckily, they say it was contained on time before it spread to other areas. This came less than 24 hours after a fire burnt down tens of houses in an informal settlement in Kangemi, along Waiyaki way.
“It would have been yet another opportunity for politicians to shed their crocodile tears as they make even more tears,” Joseph Kisilu, a cloth vendor at the market said.
In June 2018, at least 15 people died after a dawn fire burnt Kwa-Mbao area, a section of the market. Five of those who died succumbed to injuries upon arrival at the Kenyatta National Hospital, among them four children, while another died at Mama Lucy Hospital. More than 70 others sustained injuries.