Kisii governor James Ongwae has assured Daraja Mbili open air market users that his government will improve the market to modern standards soon.
This comes after a dozen of traders lost properties worth thousands of shillings following ongoing El Nino rains in the region on Monday afternoon.
Speaking on Wednesday when he paid the traders a courtesy call to assess the damages, Ongwae said the county was on the verge of settling on an experienced contractor to commence the work.
“I want to sympathise with those who lost their properties and the county government regrets the loss. There have been delays in putting things right but we are in the final process on settling on an experienced contractor to set a modern day market,” he said.
The Kisii County boss confirmed the expected deployment of youths to unblock drainage system around the market as a temporary measure to combat possible disaster yet against by the intensive rains in the region.
“From tomorrow (Thursday), I expect that a group of youths will be deployed here to unblock the drainage systems as a temporary measure to avert another disaster,” he added.
He said the county government was also in the process of building seven bridges along the nearby River Nyakomisaro to prevent it from breaking its banks and for easy passage of pedestrians.
“We have also set aside some money that will be used in constructing seven bridges across River Nyakomisaro,” he said.