The over 2,000 traders who used to operate at the Eldoret wholesale market will know their fate after High Court Judge Anthony Ombwayo visits the market on Monday, March 4, 2019.
This comes after the traders went to court seeking an order to compel the County Government of Uasin Gishu to complete the refurbishment of the market and assign them spaces after the construction works are completed.
Judge Ombwayo has issued a directive for the court to visit the market on Monday to determine whether the respondents have complied with an earlier directive for the refurbishment of the market to be completed within 45 days.
However, the chairman of the traders Zakayo Maina expressed concern in the manner in which the case was being handled, as the county government had not sent any representatives to court.
"Traders have stayed without doing business for more than a year now and it would be unfair for Governor Mandago to insist that any trader who would not pay the arrears owed to the county would be locked out during the exercise of allocating new spaces," said Maina in Eldoret town on Sunday.
"Let him give us the slots first for us to pay the arrears since at the moment we have nothing," he added.
Governor Mandago had earlier announced that the market will be reopened soon, adding that traders with arreas must pay the money first before being allowed back in the market.
He also noted that the 200 new spaces will be allocated to hawkers who have been conducting their business in undesignated areas within the Central Business District (CBD).
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