Gikomba Market was once again on fire early this morning. It is the second time this month and the fifth this year that the traders are counting millions of shillings in losses as fire razed the market.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Early this month, the court gave the Nairobi Metropolitan Services a green light to expand the Pumwani Majengo Health Centre.
However, to pave way for the expansion to take place, some of the secondhand clothes traders will have to be evicted, meaning they will lose the booths they have occupied for over 40 years.
NMS is planning to upgrade and equip Pumwani Majengo dispensary to a Level three facility.
A level 3 facility is a health centre and is run by at least one doctor, clinical officers, and nurses offering outpatient, VCT, tuberculosis, laboratory, antenatal and postnatal services, curative treatment, and referrals to other facilities.
Also, it contains a theatre that gives room for expectant mothers to give birth which will lead to decongesting Pumwani Maternity Hospital.
Mysterious fires in Gikomba market have become the norm and no one has been arrested in the recurrent fires.
In February this year, a mysterious fire visited the open-air market and another one in August , where the government gave orders for the installation of security cameras, giving the contractor seven days to complete the work to help end frequent fires at the market.
This was after Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, NMS Director-General Mohammed Badi and Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan visited the section that had been razed by the inferno.
Two months later on October 19, 2021, another mysterious fire razed down several stalls in the market and the same incident recurred on November 8, 2021.
Seeking to solve the solution, Nairobi County Government and the national government resolved to build a new five-storey Gikomba market at a cost of Sh3 billion to end all the fire incidences.
Early this month, the court gave the Nairobi Metropolitan Services a green light to expand the Pumwani Majengo Health Centre.
