Fishmongers in Lake Nakuru. [Photo: the star.co.ke]
Nakuru County government has allocated Sh8 million towards the construction of a fish processing plant and market in Naivasha.
The project is expected to start in a week’s time at Central landing beach.
According to the director of fisheries in the county, Mathew Ngila, the market will be ready in two to three months.
Ngila said for years, fishermen around Naivasha had been forced to sell their produce from the roads and the main Naivasha bus terminus noting that the menace would now end.
“A contractor has already been identified and moved to the site and we expect the processing market to be ready in three months,” he said yesterday.
The fisheries officer added that once complete, all fishmongers currently operating at the Naivasha main bus terminus would be transferred to the site.
“We expect all fish trade to be conducted in the processing plant and we shall employ a couple of workers to work from there,” he said.
Ngila added that the plant would also have a cold room where excess fish would be stored as the traders sought a market for the catch.
The move came as the Naivasha sub-county commissioner Isaac Masinde expressed concern over rising cases of fish hawking along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.
He said though tens of youths had been employed as fishmongers, the business posed a major health threat to consumers mainly due to poor storing methods.