Anxiety as re-allocation of Kitengela town market begins

Kitengela town market is set to be re-opened this week after the Kajiado County Government closed it in September when a fight for space erupted. For eight weeks no business has been going on in the market after the fight pitting the Maasai against other communities broke out, leaving one dead and many injured.

Some traders now fear they may be left out in the re-allocation. Others claim the new space is insufficient to operate well in. “They have disregarded the agreement we had with them indicating that we were to get back our stalls,” said a trader.

They claim that some county officials took money from people promising to allocate them space when the market is re-opened. Kajiado Governor David Nkedianye however faulted the claims that tension is building up. “There is no cause for alarm and we want to take care of everybody here. We will not allow some people to take bigger spaces than others,” said Mr Nkedianye. Before the conflict started in September, the traders had moved to court to stop the planned changes.

— James Mwangi