The Kisumu county government has suspended construction activities at the Uhuru Business Complex.
The Sh600 million complex was being constructed by the national government under former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime to facilitate settlements of displaced traders.
The suspension follows the recent decision during a cabinet subcommittee meeting on February 21, 2024, regarding the developments of a Complex partnership with the Kenya Railways Corporation.
Kisumu Deputy Governor Dr Mathews Owili, who chairs the subcommittee, said it was unanimously agreed to suspend all ongoing construction activities related to the building of stalls and makeshifts at the Complex.
In a letter written to Kisumu city acting manager Abala Wanga, he said the decision was reached after thorough deliberation and consideration of various factors by the subcommittee.
“This decision has been made with the primary objective of ensuring enhanced coordination, control, and effective management of the market space,” Dr Owili said.
The letter is copied to county secretary Hesbon Hongo, Trade executive Farida Salim and Physical Planning, housing and Urban Development CECM Kennedy Hongo.
The suspension of construction activities is effective immediately and will remain in force until further directives are issued by the cabinet upon receipt and deliberation of the subcommittee report.
“We believe that this temporary measure will contribute to better planning and execution, ultimately leading to the successful realization of our shared objectives for the complex,” Dr Owili said.
Some senior officers said the construction has been suspended following public outcry over corruption claims in the allocation of spaces.
The project started way back in 2019 to accommodate traders who were evicted to pave the way for the modernisation and rehabilitation of the Sh3 billion Kisumu port.
The small-scale traders were rendered jobless after Kenya Railways demolished the structures constructed on their land.
They have been pushing both the national and county governments to resettle them.
The complex, which can accommodate approximately 10,000 businesses, has been surrounded by claims of irregular and unfair allocation of stalls, locking out genuine traders.
The Kenya Railways and the county government jointly gave the national government acres of land for the construction of the market.
Kisumu City Residents Voice Association chairman Audi Ogada said the complex has been taken over by cartels and corrupt county officials including MCAs.
Most of the stalls have been irregularly allocated to individuals with some owning up to 30 with others 40 stalls.
Ogada said some senior county officers own between five stalls, including a spouse to a senior officer who has over 16 stalls.
Besides irregular stall allocation, a bar associated with the spouse of the top county officer is under construction within the complex.
Relatives of county officers and former MPs also own between 10 and 12 stalls. Ogada said the unfair allocation has left genuine traders without spaces to do business.
One of the former Kisumu city board members allegedly owns over 20 stalls, with most of them sold to individuals. Some individuals have erected containers and constructed stalls, which they sell to desperate traders.
According to Ogada, the MCAs who are supposed to play an oversight role and represent the residents, have also been allocated spaces at the expense of languishing traders.
He called for a thorough audit and verification of those owning stalls at the business park.
“We want the list of traders which was gazetted by then county commissioner Josephine Ouko be used in fresh allocation of the stall,” Ogada said.
The original list published had 900 traders who had been displaced following the rehabilitation of the port before being revised to 1,100 following public outcry.
Ogada noted that the market has been faced with wrangles over spaces, which has extended to senior county officers with a vested interest.
He urged Governor Anyang Nyong’o to personally intervene to weed out the cartels who have taken control of the market.
He said spaces were to be allocated to balloted traders. He assured that traders will be involved to ensure all sectors are accommodated.
But this, traders said, was lip service as some of them possess genuine ballots upon verification by the market management team for settlement, lacking spaces.
Last year, there was a standoff between Kisumu County and the national government over the balloting of the market. However, the matter was later resolved.
The project is touted to be one of the major fruits of the then handshake between Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
The market has several components, including stalls, eateries and garages with a provision for transport services.
In 2019, Kenya Railways handed over the land title deed to former Nyanza regional commissioner James Kianda on the site.