Activities at the Wangige market in Kiambu County were on Saturday brought to a halt after traders clashed with officials from the County Government over the construction of a new market.
The trades while protesting, accused the county government of planning the Ksh400 million project without conducting public participation.
"They did not properly communicate what they were coming to do in this market, so the wrangles broke because we were unaware, and even now we are still unaware of where these activities such as soil sampling began," claimed a trader.
According to the traders, the market representatives were also not involved in the decision-making process.
While expressing their grievances, the traders claimed that relocations would make them lose their trading spaces which they fought hard to get.
"I do believe, if there is something to launch, you must start with the leadership of the market then after that, you can continue with the project," noted a trader.
To quell the escalating wrangles, the traders urged the county government to provide them with an alternative place before embarking on the new project.
"The reason for not speaking to the Minister is that he is the one who has organised this whole thing of market demolitions and he doesn't ask us, we the market leaders," noted a market representative.
"So he came and told us the market is being demolished and he engaged the people who are not part of the management of this market, so we did not get the chance to talk to him because they did not inform us about the developments."
In July last year, President William Ruto announced that the government had allocated Ksh13 billion for the construction of new markets in different counties across the country.
Following the allocation, Kiambu County was set to benefit from the national government's funding with Kiambu receiving Ksh3 billion in allocation for the construction of five markets.
The five markets which include Wangige were to receive Ksh400 million each, another 20 prototype markets were also to be constructed with each receiving Ksh150 million in funding for the project.
