Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has accused Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua of Inciting traders.
The DP was in Marikiti on Friday where he addressed traders who were last week moved to Kangundo Market.
Sakaja said: “I have for long avoided responding to the Deputy President’s tribal diatribe, but today’s activities leave me no choice.
As elected leaders, we have a responsibility to our people to protect and provide them with opportunities to make something out of themselves.
Just over a year ago, in June 2023, 52 traders, selling goods on a road reserve, were killed in Londiani, Kericho County, when a truck driver lost control and ploughed into them. Thirty of them sustained life-changing injuries. These people cannot come back to life. I have a duty and mandate that will not let me fall for populist political gimmicks at the expense of the lives and safety of Nairobians.
This morning, in a misinformed tribal diatribe, and while speaking in vernacular in the heart of our nation’s capital, you have chosen to use falsehoods to incite traders against the measures we are taking.
To Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua I say: If only you had taken your phone and called me as I had suggested, you would have learnt a few things:
1.My government has no plan to relocate the Marikiti Market. Selected produce will be delivered wholesale to the other markets we have built using taxpayers’ money. What we will not allow are traders endangering their lives by selling their wares on the roadside. They will move to Kangundo Road Market. However, if you have sufficient space outside your office on Harambee Avenue, I am sure they will be happy to display their wares and ply their trade in that safe environment.
There will be order in this major artery into the city. The people of Nairobi and the leadership of the market support this move fully.
2.You have asked that consultations with the affected traders be held. My government has continuously engaged our people and I personally met the leadership of Wakulima/Marikiti Market last week. We agreed on these and other measures that will ease congestion in the market and improve the safety and welfare of our traders and citizens. We will not allow you to take us back.
A leader of your calibre should provide informed solutions and not stoke tribal disunity in our country. Nairobi is a cosmopolitan global hub that will operate in an orderly manner. I can assure you of that. I know you are dealing with other weighty and impending political issues.
Keep the people of Nairobi out of it.”
