Traders at the famous Toi market in Nairobi’s Kibera area are counting losses after fire razed down stalls in an early morning incident.
The blaze, believed to have started around 4 am on Saturday, is suspected to have been caused by an electrical fault.
"An electric fault in one of the wooden houses caused the fire early this morning," one of the traders said.
Firefighters from Nairobi County Government arrived hours later as the fire spread fast.
This is not the first time the market is going down in flames. The market has become prone to frequent fires.
On June 2023, traders woke up to their property worth millions of shillings razed down.
In November 2021, a fire razed down a section of stalls at the market, leaving traders counting heavy losses.
In 2019, two fires broke in the market in a span of four years after the 2014 fire outbreak that destroyed property of unknown value.
Lack of access roads has also been faulted for the slow response of fire services.
In 2018, the market experienced three fire cases, which led the then-President Uhuru Kenyatta to call for investigations into the incident and for culprits to be brought to book.
In June of that year, 15 people died and at least 60 injured when a section of the market dealing with timber and clothes was burnt.
