Street Traders and Hawkers Association in Nakuru have called on the county government to reduce the daily levies or erect more market stalls because the ones available cannot serve all of them.
The traders further claimed there was favouritism in the allocation of stalls at the renovated Nasher Market because a large number of them have not gotten space which was intended for them.
Led by their chairperson Simon Sangale, the traders said the project was dedicated to ensuring a hawker-free central business district but failure to acquire them space has forced them to stick to the streets to earn a living.
“While initiating the project, the governor personally said the new market will consider hawkers and other street traders so as to clear the jam from our streets and ease movement of goods and services,” Sangale said.
He said upon completion of the project, only new faces were seen soliciting for space ignoring the original people that had been even beaten and forcefully withdrawn from the streets to pave way for the construction of the market.
Sangale, who is also a human rights activist, further accused the county officers of demanding for bribes in cases where one is found hawking within town.
“All these people are struggling to make ends meet; chasing them out of the streets without offering them an alternative market is killing their businesses. They are also taxpayers like any other person who deserve decent treatment and recognition from the government,” he explained.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an aborted peoples match organised by civil societies at Nyayo gardens to express concern over the Controller of Budget audit report that revealed gross misappropriation of funds and irregular spending in the county.