Car buyers may be forced to travel to other counties as Mombasa county orders closure of all car bazaars and showrooms sitting on public and illegal land.
Governor Hassan Joho’s administration has begun issuing notices to traders operating from the targeted spaces to look for alternatives.
With 62 such facilities around the coastal county, many job losses are expected too.
County communications director Richard Chacha said the tourism hub was keen to deal with congestion in the city.
“We are also eliminating brokers who have been taking money from showroom owners purporting to be their godfathers and promising to protect them. We want to use the land to expand our roads. They have been given notices to vacate,” Mr Chacha told Business Daily.
“The county government wishes to notify you of the closure of the showroom and repossession of the space. This is in correspondence to the cancellation of TOLs by the county government of Mombasa on unalienated government land in the county of Mombasa in the year 2013,” reads part of a letter sent to one of the businesses.
The companies have been given a 14-day notice to close the showrooms and vacate the space.
Mombasa has established itself as the go-to place for used vehicles, with more than 200 car yards taking up the city’s prime streets to cash in on the booming business serving not only the coastal region but also the rest of the country.
According to BD, car bazaars generate about Sh12 million annually for the county in revenue.