Red Cross volunteers clean Kisumu Municipal Market. The market has never been cleaned for the past six months in a row. [Photo: Roberto Muyela]
Trading at Kisumu’s largest fresh trading market Saturday morning remained closed as traders engaged in a clean-up exercise to spruce the market.
The clean up exercise was coordinated by the Kenya Red Cross as part of the organisation’s community services.
Speaking after the exercise, Kisumu County Red Cross Coordinator Elizabeth Aballa Aballa observed that the exercise will go a long way in ensuring that town’s environment is free from the recently banned plastic bags.
The plastic wastes, Aballa said, had chocked the draining infrastructure installed in the market adding that the market has also not been cleaned for the past six months in a row.
“This poses a health hazard for both the traders and the customers,” said Aballa.
The market’s Chairman Martin Oluoch that for the traders to increase their sales, it was imperative for them to practice proper waste disposal.
The chairman said that the County Government had installed mechanisms to have the market cleaned but the workforce was not competitive enough to handle the task.
The initiative, he said, was timely as the market had accumulated tons of waste which he revealed had blocked the drainage system besides also producing a foul smell.
He urged the County government to rein upon its cleaning services in bid to streamline tidiness in the market.