Traders count losses as Mutindwa market gutted by early morning fire
Hundreds of traders at Mutindwa market are counting their losses after their property was gutted in an early morning fire.
Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje revealed that the fire started around 2 am and was aggressive.
“Traders at Mutindwa market have lost goods worth over Sh100 million following the 2am inferno… Poleni sana watu wangu, we will assess the damage and we need to rebuild,” he said in a statement.
Firefighters from the nearby Kangundo Road Fire Station were unable to contain the blaze an hour after it broke out and were later joined by the Kenyan army, who were still extinguishing the remaining flames of the fire at 9 am.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
The Mutindwa fire comes just two days after a similar blaze at the popular Toi market in Kibera left hundreds of traders counting their losses.
In January, the Kenya Railways Corporation issued a notice to demolish illegal structures at Mutindwa market.
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Kenya Railways asked vendors to vacate the area on road reserves and less than three metres from the railway to make way for an access road to the station.
The market, which borders Bidii Primary School and East School of Theology University, has been demolished by successive Nairobi City Councils for various reasons.
The fire reportedly started at around 2 am and took hours, reducing the makeshift stalls to ashes and destroying property worth millions of shillings.
On Monday, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) launched an investigation to establish the cause of the fire that gutted the entire Toi market.
Detectives arrived at the now-flattened famous market and collected ash samples for analysis.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja visited the market on Sunday and promised to help the more than 3,000 traders rebuild their structures.
The open-air market, known for its second-hand clothes, fresh produce, artefacts and toys, is located on the edge of the Kibera slum, one of Africa’s largest informal settlements.
The market, with 3,500 stalls and more than 5,000 small traders, sits on four acres of land on Suna Road, and the Nairobi City County government has plans to build modern houses on the site.
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