AfriPulse
Traders who sell their wares along Thika Road are counting losses after the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) demolished structures erected along the highway.
The demolitions took place on the evening of Wednesday, February 18, with excavators and law enforcement officers deployed in the Githurai area to oversee the destruction of property located on the road reserves.
According to officials, the operation followed an earlier notice issued to traders operating along the road reserve. However, several traders were caught unaware, with some goods still inside the structures at the time of demolition.
Makeshift kiosks, metal stalls, perimeter fences, and semi-permanent structures were all removed to make way for the construction of bus bays along the route.
Images widely shared online showed bulldozers and excavators bringing down temporary structures as residents, who were mostly local traders, watched helplessly.
During the incident, a section of residents attempted to stop the demolitions but were quickly repelled by a contingent of police officers who had been deployed to oversee the exercise.
Similarly, earlier in the day, the residents had protested the planned demolitions, claiming the move was abrupt and lacked adequate public participation and a clear relocation plan.
The demonstrators barricaded a section of the Thika Superhighway and set tyres on flames near the Githurai overpass, bringing traffic along the route to a standstill.
The latest development comes hardly a week after the authority gave roadside traders along Thika road seven days to vacate and pave the way for the construction of new bus bays at Roysambu and Githurai.
In a notice dated February 9, KeNHA said the exercise would begin immediately after the seven-day grace period lapses, targeting traders and structures encroaching on road reserves.
“This is to notify all roadside traders along the Thika Superhighway at the Roysambu and Githurai sections to clear their wares from the road reserve within seven days of this notice,” a statement from KeNHA read in part.
KeNHA Director General Luka Kimeli reiterated that the new bus bays were expected to significantly reduce traffic congestion and minimise road incidents caused by unregulated matatu stops and roadside trading.
A traffic snarl-up along Thika Superhighway
Photo
KeNHA
Source: Kenyans.co.ke | Read the Full Story…
