Jua Kali artisans in Kisumu want the county government to secure a parcel of land on which they were relocated after a businessman claimed its ownership.
The artisans who had been evicted from the town centre over the past month want the city manager to issue them with allotment letters for the new location.
The move comes after an Asian business man told them the one-acre piece of land the county had identified for their relocation was part of his land.
He placed beacons on the land adjacent to the defunct Kenya Breweries plant to mark it as his.
The traders demanded a title deed as a guarantee that they would not be evicted from the new location even after the tenure of the current county government expires.
The demands were however opposed by the government which said the document would be in the county government’s name.
Chairman of the Kisumu Centre Jaukali Artisans Association Jacob Ouma, alias Copako, said they would not accept to be located on a disputed land and called on the government to fast-track its acquisition.
“We need to be guaranteed that we will not be evicted after the current government steps out of office. We therefore will be calling for documents to prove ownership,” he said.
He said the number of traders who were to be relocated to the parcel was too big for the provided land and asked the government to allocate more land to them.
“There are nine groups that have been operating outside the old location and have not secured a place in the 1acre piece given to us so far.”
He said they were not opposed to eviction but accused the county of sending them into a disputed parcel and has been reluctant in resolving it despite on-going evictions from various locations of trade across the central business district.
“The government is not committed to ending the feud. Our business is being affected and we need to settle down and divide the space to accommodate the big number,” he said.