Tension mounts as Kibuye traders clash with management over demolition

Kisumu, Tuesday, May 16, 2023 

KNA by Edwin Odhiambo and Blake Keen

Second hand clothes (mitumba) sellers in Kibuye market, Kisumu County have staged protests condemning the illegal destruction of their business stalls.

The traders decry high infiltration levels by cartels in the market leadership exploiting them.

“Leaders in this market have collaborated with cartels who are oppressing us,” Winnie Anyango, a distraught businesswoman lamented.

Seconding the sentiments, Elijah Odoyo claimed that “we are only given the stalls inside the market after giving out some bribe.”

The market chairperson Joyce Adhiambo Matengo, alias Nyaramba, has refuted the allegations terming the mitumba traders as stubborn.

“These traders do not want to trade inside the market. They display their wares along the roads and on the pavements hindering traffic flow,” Matengo clarified.

She also denied hiring goons to demolish the stalls, adding that a notice of evacuation had been issued to the traders on Sunday but they defied the directive.

“The County government has no issues with traders and all these are mere propaganda spreading around. The traders are fighting among themselves,” she argued.

The traders are now demanding that the market management give them an alternative place to put up their businesses.

However, other traders say they opt to stay put at Kibuye.

“I have been in Kibuye market for a long time and the cash from my sales is what my family depends on,” Jackline Omondi says.

“The profit from the sales is what has educated my children. Where do they expect me to produce the kind of cash to sustain my family?” she posed.

Courtesy; K.N.A