Protest Erupt In Kisumu CBD

Protest Erupt In Kisumu CBD

Protest Erupt In Kisumu CBD

On Wednesday, a group of tens of shopkeepers staged protests in Kisumu’s Central Business District (CBD) calling for Acting City Manager Abala Wanga to be fired immediately due to planned demolitions and the moving of the Kisumu Bus Stage.The city’s services were severely disrupted when the demonstrating merchants, who held signs outlining their complaints, set fire to tires on the streets leading to City Hall.

The angry traders then stormed Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o’s office at City Hall, demanding that he respond to their requests before they could leave.”We’ve convened here to support Kisumu’s small business owners in the city center. As the Kisumu Bus Stage manager put it, “We are here because of the conduct of our city manager Abala Wanga.””We refuse to consent to the bus park being relocated to Molem. We will not support Nyamlori’s demolition. The stage manager accused hotels in Kisumu of building entire primary schools there, along with alcohol sales kiosks.

The demonstrators disclosed that they had written a petition previously, which they intended to deliver to the Kisumu County Assembly at a later time.

Further, the protesting traders vowed not to pay any more taxes to the Kisumu County Government until the matter was fully addressed.”Each time the city manager has been threatening our leaders, they call our leaders cartels. Anything that will happen to any trader in Kisumu, he will be held responsible,” noted one of the protesting traders.

Instructively, the traders insisted the meeting between Governor Nyong’o and Abala include their representatives, with most of them dismissing a closed-door forum.Governor Nyong’o was however yet to respond to the traders’ demands despite the demonstrators protesting in front of his office for hours.

The traders had previously stormed the governor’s office in protest against the removal of kiosks located in the central business district.A similar event occurred in March of last year when vendors protested the Kisumu County Government demolishing their kiosks. The County Government hired bulldozers to knock down multiple stores, which infuriated the locals.In order to stop the protests, police had to step in.