Karuri Market

Karuri Market was once a vibrant and fast growing market that served thousands of Karuri and neighboring districts. But today it stands as a pale shadow of its former self thanks to the economic stimulus package of 2006. 

The History of Karuri Market.

Kariuki wa gakure

Karuri Market is one of the oldest markets in Kenya. It was first established as a meeting
point sometime between 1875 – 1890 by a Kikuyu leader from Murang’a called Karuri Wa Gakure. The man is said to have been used to transverse through this area from his home in Iyego in Muranga to Kabete and other
With time the place grew as a trading center even after his death in 1916 and throughout the colonial period and was highly boosted in 1948 when the first tarmac road was build from Nairobi through Banana to Limuru. The high rate of growth witnessed the mushrooming of shops and other buildings around the trading center and during the 1990s to 2006 the market center had attracted many investors including banks and micro-finance institutions.
This momentous growth attracted traders who came to sell and buy products from as far as Muranga, Gatundu, Limuru and Nairobi. Its growth potential prompted the government to earmark the market for upgrade.
In August of 2006, Karuri Ward residents were in joy and celebrations when the then Karuri Town Council Clerk came with the news that Karuri Market was one of those earmarked for upgrading in the newly established National Economic Stimulus package.
western regions in search of trade. He designated a place where he used to rest throughout the long journey and where his trading partners from the west would meet him. The place was therefore known by his name Karuri.

Upgrading that killed the market

The incomplete Karuri Market project.

Chronology of events:
In August 2006 The Karuri Town Council, in which jurisdiction Karuri Market lay, appealed to the traders to relocate to allow for the construction of a modern market.
The council rented a plot in Banana Town belonging to a resident called Virginia.
In April 2007, a company known as Jokimwa Construction was awarded the tender to build the Market at an approved cost of Ksh. 44.5Million.
In May 2007, the contractor started work, but it was later to stall after having put up a fence and laid some bricks and metal bars for the shades.
1 ½ years later there was nothing to show for the market.

Residents started complaining of the slow pace of construction bearing in mind the suffering they were going through at the rented private plot.
When the protests became too loud the government intervened through the Director of Urban development, canceled the contract and ordered the contractor to leave the site in a letter dated 11th Nov. 2008.
The Town Council, under a lot of pressure from the complaining traders, rented another plot which was on higher ground and moved them from the swampy pitch while still promising to hasten the completion of Karuri Market.

The private land where traders were relocated

The plot which was initially a garden was rented at a cost of Ksh. 50,000 per month.

After the cancellation of the initial contract, it took the Ministry a whole 16 months just to re-advertise the tender afresh and which was done on 16th Feb. 2010 this time at another cost of Ksh. 54Million.
Three companies bid for the tenders for the completion of the Karuri Market. Upto today, no word has been said of the opening of the tenders or what went wrong. Inquiries have been met with promises that the Market will be completed soon.

EFFECTS OF THE RELOCATION
Before the intended upgrading 9 years ago, Karuri Market had continued to grow in leaps and bounds becoming the major source of income for over half of the area’s 38,000 residents and the chief revenue earner for Karuri Town Council.
Contrary to the expectations of residents, the government’s economic stimulus program had come to kill all what they had build for a century, shattering their livelihoods and condemning them into a life of abject poverty.

Part of the businesses that closed down after relocation

The following are the effects of the relocation.
1. The relocation caused a drastic collapse of all the businesses that operated within the Market including the over 100 shops that surrounded the market leading to massive losses.

2. The relocation caused a lot of inconvenience and suffering as traders are forced to trade on water logged grounds. The bushy areas adjacent to the rented plot and which the traders use to answer their calls of nature is also used as hiding places for criminals. The traders have therefore been encountering many cases of attempted rape, harassment, thugery, and robbery. They have also been working in a most unhygienic environment as the private plots has no toilets, water or any sanitary facility

3. Since the temporary market has no stores, the traders are forced to incur expenses of transporting leftover goods, every market day, either to their homes or rented stores at the nearby town..

Buildings wear down after 9 years of abandonment

4. The closure of the market led to job losses to hundreds of young people who used to work as porters, shop attendants, bank employees, carpenters, butchers, hotel waiters and those who used to trade in the many informal businesses in the market. All the 38,000 residents of Karuri Ward depended directly or indirectly on Karuri market.

5. For the past 9 years, Karuri Town council has been spending Ksh. 50,000 of our tax every month to pay rent to the private plot owner plus the extra monies spent monthly to hire a security firm that guards the building materials at the abandoned site.

The suffering traders endured on muddy grounds

6. No effort has been made to either explain the cause of these inconveniences, plans for a resolution or any recourse to the losses incurred by all the affected beneficiaries.
Government to blame

Residents of Karuri ward have patiently waited for 9 years, every day hoping that the government would fulfill its promise. The length of time that the government has taken without doing anything to the stalled Market is more than enough prove that it has failed in its constitutional duty delegated to it by the traders and beneficiaries of Karuri Market.

The act of closing down Karuri market which was fast growing and supporting the livelihoods of so many people for 9 years is a gross violation of a people’s basic rights and fundamental freedoms.

This act by our government which has a constitutional obligation to protect the social and economic rights of its people has caused untold suffering to residents whose businesses collapsed, the many who lost employment and great losses to the investors whose building are wasting away due to abandonment.

The many families who currently languish in poverty, the children who dropped out of school for lack of school fees and the desolate state of the entire Karuri Town which now looks like a ghost town can only be blamed on the government.