Many stalls for various traders such as for food vendors, boutique owners, fruit mongers, and greengrocers were completely destroyed.
Traders at the renowned Fig Tress Ngara Market are calculating their losses after waking up on Tuesday morning, July 27th 2021 to destroyed stalls.
In unspecified reasons, a number of temporary stalls were dismantled. According to sources, several of the merchants wept and cried when they saw their goods and investment had been destroyed without explanation.
Bishop Magaret Wanjiru, a former Starehe MP, came on the scene after getting several calls from individuals inquiring about the market. She also gave the traders Ksh100,000 to distribute among themselves.
“I did not come here well prepared but I believe the little I have should help in one way or another,” stated Wanjiru.
As the merchants began shouting Deputy President William Ruto’s name, the Nairobi gubernatorial candidate assured the traders that she would solicit his intervention.
Some source have linked the act to an identified Nairobi businessman who is said to have ordered the demolitions in order to turn the premium property into a parking lot.
The merchants intended to stone the developer’s property, but police officers arrived to keep the situation under control.
Stalls demolition in Kenya including accidental burning of markets has been on the rise in the recent past to pave way for private developers.
Back in 2018, more than 200 stalls at Nyayo Market got demolished in the wee hours of the night to pave way for development. The market land was under a dispute with the Urban Renewal Housing project.
A similar incident occurred on July 10, 2021. Business owners on Manyanja Road in Embakasi lost when their establishment was raided in the middle of the night in a sting operation.
The businesspeople said that they were not given the option of salvaging their assets.