Agnes Nyaboke sits alone on an old sofa on a cold morning looking at the remains of what she used to call her business stall at Mutindwa market tucked between Buruburu and Umoja estates.
Crestfallen, the middle-aged woman is not waiting for customers to flock her stall and sample the second-hand clothes she had been selling but supervising two young men rebuilding her booth that was razed to ashes by a morning inferno on June 14.
Her stand, which had mitumba clothes worth Sh250,000, was among hundreds that were razed down in the fire at the market, which has been her only source of livelihood.
“I have been running the business for six years now. On the fateful morning, I received a call around 5 am that my stall and others had been consumed by the fire,” she laments.
Nyaboke is amongst hundreds of traders who were left counting losses estimated to be worth millions of shillings.
Mutindwa market lies along the one kilometre of Sonko Road that links Buruburu and Umoja in Eastlands. Unfortunately, the link road is no longer in use due to the trading activities that extend along the railway line where traders sell vegetables.
Ken Juma, an official at the market, says the fire started around 2 am and by the time he was alerted, it had consumed several stalls.
Although many theories were linked to the inferno, there is a strong feeling among the traders that it was caused by arsonist(s).
“We suspected it was an arson attack since the same morning, two other markets in the city caught fire and it can’t be a coincidence. The value of wares that we lost is between Sh250 million and Sh300 million. About 601 traders were affected,” said Juma.
According to the official, for a while, rumours have been swirling that some people are not happy that a majority of the traders at the market do not come from within.
Despite the huge loss, the traders received a boost when Governor Johnson Sakaja gave them Sh3 million to enable them to reconstruct their stalls.
Slow response
Another trader, Daniel Muiya, whose stall was also razed down, blamed slow response by the county disaster management team, even though Kangundo Road Fire Station is barely a kilometre away.
“If they had responded on time, maybe some stalls could have been saved, but the firefighters arrived more than an hour later with empty tanks. The slow response is baffling us,” said Mercy Mumbua, another trader.
Mutindwa is among several open-air markets in the city which have frequently faced fire threats with emergence responses often being sluggish, leaving traders in despair at the frequent loss of their investments.
Some of the notable open-air markets include New Ngara, Kiamaiko, Maasai, Yahya, City Stadium, Maziwa, Jericho, Kahawa, City Park, Toi, Kangemi, Kawangware, Korogocho, Gikomba, Kayole Soweto, Westgate, Woodley and Dandora Terminus.
Curiously, it is Mutindwa, Toi and Gikomba that have, year in, year out, been disrupted by fire incidents raising eyebrows on whether the fires are accidental or deliberate.
Further, slow response to the infernos has fueled suspicion that it could be an evil scheme by greedy land grabbers out to push the traders out of the three markets.
According to the county statistics, Nairobi has about 700 firefighters. Early this year 300 of them underwent rigorous training on firefighting.
Toi Market
Located on the edge of Kibra informal settlement, the market is famous for selling unique, cool clothing at affordable prices.
With about 6,000 traders, Toi is a popular destination for second-hand clothes buyers after Gikomba. Once an inclusive baby-clothes market, the place has grown, accommodating all age sets.
Over the years, it has experienced a fair share of fire incidences believed to be deliberately caused with the latest inferno happening on the night of June 11 when traders were woken by the bad news that their stalls were being reduced to ashes.
Traders and residents suspect some individuals are eyeing the land where the market stands.
“Some young men were captured on camera saying that their job was done and that it was a warning to relocate,” Kevin Mutie, a trader at the market told The Nairobian.
According to Mutie, this was not the first time their wares were going up in smoke - the market has become prone to frequent fires with the government offering no permanent solution.
However, the City-County Assembly has now approved a motion that seeks to tame frequent infernos in markets.
Peter Imwatok who is behind the motion, told the Assembly that the frequency of attacks targeting markets in informal settlements is suspected to be through human malicious acts.
The Makongeni MCA has sought the fencing of the markets with perimeter walls to keep off intruders with bad intentions.
“This Assembly urges the county executive to allocate sufficient funds from the county budget for the year 2023/24 or seek alternative funding sources to finance the constructions,” he proposed.
By securing the markets, the Leader of Majority believes security will be enhanced, deterring arson attacks.
Gikomba market
Located a few kilometres from Central Business District in Kamkunji area, the market is the home for second-hand clothes, shoes and curtains.
But it is always making news for the wrong reasons. Frequent fire incidences believed to be instigated by private land developers have given the market a bad name.
For instance, in 2021 alone, about 15 cases were reported leaving the traders counting losses worth millions of shillings.
Gikomba has since then experienced seven fire incidents. The trend has left traders in fear with some of them asking county government to install CCTV cameras as a deterrent measure.
The traders made the appeal when Sakaja visited the market on October 17, 2022 to inspect the damage caused by a night inferno.
“Gikomba is public land and we will build a wall around it. It belongs to the people of Nairobi and we will defend it to the end from grabbers,” he said.
Kamukunji MP Abdi Yusuf Hassan appealed to the traders to make space for construction of access roads so that firefighting trucks reach fire scenes with ease.
“These regular fires should end and we are asking the governments of President William Ruto and Johnson Sakaja to find a lasting solution,” appealed Yusuf.
Lost at why most of the fires start at night, the traders asked authorities to install CCTV in the market.
They proposed drilling of boreholes and provision of fire hydrants as they appealed for enhanced police patrols.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest developments and special offers!
