Fire Sweeps Through Gikomba Market Leaving Trail of Losses

A huge fire swept through a section of Gikomba Market in Nairobi on Tuesday morning leaving many in pain.

No injuries were reported in the April 9 incident, police said adding many lost valuables.

Police and witnesses said the fire broke out at about 2 am spreading fast.

Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said no injury had been reported by 7 am and that efforts to contain it were ongoing.

He said the cause of the fire, which marks yet another tragedy at the market is yet to be established.

Multi-agency teams were deployed to the scene to help contain the spread of the fire.

“We have many teams including the public fighting to contain it now before we embark on the probe into the same,” he said.

There have been many fire incidents in the area prompting leaders to call for the same to be declared a disaster.

Kamukunji MP Yussuf Hassan has been leading campaigns to contain and address the incidents.

Gikomba Market, East Africa’s largest open-air market, has experienced unpredictable fires annually.

For decades, Gikomba market has been a source of income for many including food vendors, second-hand clothes traders, carpenters, business people, and many more.

However, for many years, they have constantly been in tears and encountered losses as fire mocked their success by razing down the market.

Gikomba has had its annual fires in the past years 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

For instance, on November 28, 2021, as Nairobi was experiencing heavy rainfall, traders were once again crying in pain as commodities of unknown value were destroyed in another mysterious fire.

This was the second time that month and the fifth in 2021 that the traders were counting millions of shillings in losses after fire razed their commodities.

In February 2021, a mysterious fire visited the open-air market and another one in August.

On April 10, 2019, more than 2,000 structures were razed down as a section of the market was gutted by fire.

And as part of efforts to address the menace, the government in 2022 gave the contractor installing security cameras in Gikomba seven days to complete the job in the latest quest to end frequent fires at the market.

Interior Principal Secretary Dr Karanja Kibicho said the cameras whose installation was underway was complement other security and safety measures such as the construction of a perimeter wall and the mounting of flood lights being undertaken in the market that has been ravaged by frequent fires.

He said the construction of modern, safer markets to relocate traders from their current open-air spaces will be expedited.

Phase one of the Sh493 million six-storey building was completed in October 2020 and more than 1,000 stalls are already occupied.

Construction of phase two of the project is underway.

Three boreholes have also been drilled in the area.