Kenya: Traders Block Road After Access to Korogocho Market Closed

Transport was paralysed on Nairobi’s Outer Ring Road on Friday morning as residents lit tyres to protest lack of access to Korogocho market.

Blockage of the market was caused by contractors who have been demolishing residential houses in Korogocho, Kariobangi North, for the past one week, according to Patrick Maina, the chairman of the Korogocho Market Traders’ Association.

After the bulldozers were done pulling down the structures, the contractors embarked on digging trenches around the market leaving it without passageways.

“The people who carried out the recent demolitions told us they wanted to install culverts, and so they dug up the road all the way to the river. It was cut on both sides of the market. When we asked them, they gave us a route that passes in the mid of sewerage. They told us to use that to access the market,” Mr Maina told Nation.

“However, on Thursday night they blocked that route and as such no one could access the market. Vehicles have no way of accessing the market, and we don’t have a way of transporting goods. So, today we are protesting to gain access to the roads,” added Mr Maina.

Mr Maina said the market has a title deed registered to the Korogocho Market Traders’ Association, with a membership of about 3,000 people. An estimated 5,000 people, he said, rely on the market for business.

“We have no war with the government, but we want out right of access maintained,” said Mr Maina. “We decided that because they have blocked our access, the government should intervene and show us what we can do and give a lasting solution.”

By noon, the roads were still blocked, though police bosses in the area had reached out to the traders to back down on the protest.

“We’ve spoken with the OCPD and OCS, who advised that we make a small passage for vehicles from where it had been blocked,” said Mr Maina.