There was a scuffle in Madaraka Market on Saturday that threatened to go out of control, thanks to Makongeni Police Station police officers who intervened on time, when a group of traders in the market accused a section of their colleagues of betrayal.
According to one of the aggrieved traders who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, a number of their colleagues went secretly to see Governor William Kabogo on Friday in his office with an intention of resolving the stand-off that has been there between them and the county government since the market was razed by unknown people last November.
In the said meeting, the 'betrayers' reportedly agreed with Kabogo that they will withdraw a case at the High Court, Nairobi where the county government is among other things accused by the traders of being behind the November razing where their goods worth millions was gutted down.
They agreed further that they will start paying levies to the county government which has not been happening since the November incidence.
The county government in return promised to rebuild the market as well as start collecting all the market refuse that has now been lying there for months since the county environment department withdrew all its services. The county government trucks and tractors that had come to start the clearing and the rebuilding process were stoned away by the irate traders who accused the county government of trying to undermine the court process.
"Those traders who went to see the governor went on their own and were not at all representing our interests. We are not subject to whatever they agreed. Ours is to wait for the High Court's decision," Thomas Kasyoki, the market's chairman said. The county government's representatives in the area could not be reached immediately for comment.