The first time Ugandan police started harassing Kenyans living in Ugingo and Migingo islands, the talk out there whispered in hushed tones was that the government had clandestinely sold the islands in lake Victoria to Yoweri Museveni's government hence the presence of Ugandan forces taking charge on formerly Kenyan island and waters.
Since then investigations, survey and agreements were made and it was found those islands lie within our territorial waters. Sadly, Ugandan forces still intimidate, harass and take charge of security in these islands.
Yesterday Kenyans woke up to another instance of a perennial Gikomba fire tragedy. The most widely accepted view, is that, "gikomba imeshauzwa," and now the infernos are meant to force out people.
Since then several theories seeking to explain and unlock the deadlock of Gikomba fire tragedies have emerged. The Fist theory is of course that of a possible land grabbing where it is alleged some powerful political and or private developer has bought the land on which the popular market lies and would do anything to force the small scale traders out .
Property developers in Nairobi are known to employ arson as a means of evicting adamant tenants. Where tenants are not willing to vacate and give way for the owner to develop his property, renovate or even transfer ownership, firce fires have been employed to do the same.
The second theory is that, the government itself might be interested in developing the market while the traders would not listen to any call to be relocated even for sometime. There is nothing the current government cannot do. You remember when Senator, Snr. council James Orengo said, "The government can eat its own children." We saw in the wake of a hotly contested presidential elections of 2017, how the government devoured its own children including infants, even neonates. There is nothing this government cannot do with an ambition.
Thirdly,your guess could be as good as mine; Cartels. Unscrupulous business competitors are another suspect for this tragedy that has so far left fifteen Kenyans dead. Some traders believe some villainous and unethical stockists might have brought in or were planning to ship in a large volume of stock that would face competition from Gikomba and as such would choose to raze down any form of competition.
Another possible cause of the fire can be related to the Gikomba traders themselves. With the advent of Tala, branch, M-Shwari and KCB M-Pesa and Mobiloan many first time and small scale traders have liberal access to credit from varied financial institutions. Once the loanees are unable or foresee inability to repay or offset their loans they might elect to start the fires which they might use as an alibi not to repay their loans.
The most heartbreaking, seemingly true cause, was that there is an hotel owner who did not put out his/her Jiko at close of business. Though the deaths from the residential were attributed to an allegation that a gate keeper chose to lock the gate from outside and left so that degenerate reprobates would not loot property during the evacuation commotion after fire got into residential flats. Too bad. May God be with those affected families.
Since then investigations, survey and agreements were made and it was found those islands lie within our territorial waters. Sadly, Ugandan forces still intimidate, harass and take charge of security in these islands.
Yesterday Kenyans woke up to another instance of a perennial Gikomba fire tragedy. The most widely accepted view, is that, "gikomba imeshauzwa," and now the infernos are meant to force out people.
Since then several theories seeking to explain and unlock the deadlock of Gikomba fire tragedies have emerged. The Fist theory is of course that of a possible land grabbing where it is alleged some powerful political and or private developer has bought the land on which the popular market lies and would do anything to force the small scale traders out .
Property developers in Nairobi are known to employ arson as a means of evicting adamant tenants. Where tenants are not willing to vacate and give way for the owner to develop his property, renovate or even transfer ownership, firce fires have been employed to do the same.
The second theory is that, the government itself might be interested in developing the market while the traders would not listen to any call to be relocated even for sometime. There is nothing the current government cannot do. You remember when Senator, Snr. council James Orengo said, "The government can eat its own children." We saw in the wake of a hotly contested presidential elections of 2017, how the government devoured its own children including infants, even neonates. There is nothing this government cannot do with an ambition.
Thirdly,your guess could be as good as mine; Cartels. Unscrupulous business competitors are another suspect for this tragedy that has so far left fifteen Kenyans dead. Some traders believe some villainous and unethical stockists might have brought in or were planning to ship in a large volume of stock that would face competition from Gikomba and as such would choose to raze down any form of competition.
Another possible cause of the fire can be related to the Gikomba traders themselves. With the advent of Tala, branch, M-Shwari and KCB M-Pesa and Mobiloan many first time and small scale traders have liberal access to credit from varied financial institutions. Once the loanees are unable or foresee inability to repay or offset their loans they might elect to start the fires which they might use as an alibi not to repay their loans.
The most heartbreaking, seemingly true cause, was that there is an hotel owner who did not put out his/her Jiko at close of business. Though the deaths from the residential were attributed to an allegation that a gate keeper chose to lock the gate from outside and left so that degenerate reprobates would not loot property during the evacuation commotion after fire got into residential flats. Too bad. May God be with those affected families.
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