Hawkers who were recently moved from the Nakuru town central business district have called for openness and transparency in the process of allocating new space at the Wakulima market.
Speaking on Friday at the market, a section of the hawkers raised concerns over the manner being used to allocate space at the market and called for transparency.
They said that the county government is very slow in allocating space to hawkers, and claimed that some hawkers who were never evicted from the CBD are being given space at the market.
“We smell a rat here because some people who were not even hawkers are being given space here at the expense f genuine hawkers. County officials should stop playing games here because they will create more problems than they have created so far,” said Miriam Wamaitha, a hawker.
“Since we were evicted, some of us have not been able to get space because the pace is very slow. This is the second week and we are yet to be resettled and our families are suffering because we used to rely on this business,” said Monica Wanjiku, another hawker.
Stanley Kibet, also a hawker, called on the county government to be quick and keen when allocating space to hawkers to avoid scenarios where genuine hawkers will miss space.
“We are seeing some people on the line and we know that they are not hawkers, we don’t know where they have come from and we don’t know why they are being given space,” he said.
At the same time, disabled hawkers want the county government to give them first consideration when giving out the new space, saying that they cannot withstand the long wait due to their nature.
“Some of us must be given first priority because we cannot run up and down like normal people otherwise we will miss space if the government does not consider us first,” said Agnes Muriuki, a physically disabled hawker.