Suba traders protest over the sorry state of Sindo market

At the heart of Sindo Town in Suba is a strategically placed billboard put up by the county government of Homa Bay.

It has information written in Dholuo on how traders should pay revenue to the government and every business operator can see and read the notice that is visible from afar.

Traders are required to either use a USSD code or a playbill number to pay taxes.

At the bottom of the poster is a note saying "Chul osuru, ger kaonti (pay taxes, build the county).

The last statement, however, is an irony of what happens at Sindo market.

A few meters from the billboard is raw sewage that is slowly eroding the soil as it forms its own path downstream.

It flows freely in front of shops and discharges the dirty water directly into the lake after joining another stream from Rang’wa Hills.

Other places inside the market have stagnant water making movement difficult.

Business operators said the county government is aware of the problems they face but it has failed to act on their plight despite collecting revenue.

Every morning, the traders said, the government would send a team of revenue collection officers to the market to check whether they have complied with information written on the billboard.

Sindo Market chairman William Obuya said he cannot recall when the market was last cleaned by officials from the county government.

He said traders have resorted to cleaning areas around their stalls and leaving the rest of the market dirty.

"A group of people have used the opposition to clean some sections of the market at a fee. But after cleaning, the same garbage is disposed of within the market and it may find its way back to the stall it came from," Mr Obuya said.

At one section of the market is a structure that is supposed to be used as a garbage collection site.

Waste should be left there for proper disposal by county officials.
But it appears as if it has not been emptied for several months.

Goats that freely roam the market have turned the area into a paradise.

Mr Obuya accused county officials of failing to pass information about the plight of traders.

"Revenue officers may not have been assigned to clean the market, but they can convey our concerns to their bosses at the county government," he said.

No toilets as well

Besides poor garbage disposal, the market suffers from a lack of enough toilets.

There are just two toilets situated in the middle of the market.
Both are unusable due to their unhygienic conditions. Even then, one is required to pay Sh10 to use them.

Mr Obuya said the condition of the toilets can lead to urinary tract infections and other diseases among traders and their families.

"Some people have resorted to relieving themselves in corridors because of the bad state of the toilets. It is a recipe for disease outbreak," he said.

According to the traders, Sindo is among the markets that collect high revenue in the county. Mr Earnest Okomo, a trader, claimed the market was not properly designed.

According to him, some of the features it has like the garbage disposal site and toilets should have been built behind the market and not in the middle.

"When the garbage disposal site is filled up, it produces odour. But there is nothing we can do but continue doing business in the dirty environment," Mr Okomo said.

He threatened to lead other traders in boycotting taxes until the condition of the market improves.

"We are tired of paying taxes to the government which does not want to help us. We have issued a two weeks ultimatum to the county government to make the market clean or fail to get our money," Mr Okomo said.

Homa Bay collected Sh142.2 million in March this year. The county government targets to collect Sh1 billion annually with each department given a target of what they should remit every month.

Ms Christine Atieno, a trader at Sindo market, claimed that they are always pressurised to pay revenue.

“Whoever does not want to pay usually has his or her merchandise taken away. It is as if the revenue officers are working under some sort of pressure from their bosses,” she said.

Traders at the market called on the responsible department to conduct regular garbage collection.

[email protected]