Drama as Mathira traders jeer MPs over railway land

Drama unfolded in Karatina town on Monday evening when two lawmakers were forced to cut short their speeches after angry traders evicted from railway land two years ago shouted them down.

Mathira MP Eric Wamumbi and Nyeri Senator Wahome Wamatinga visited the market at around 6.30pm and tried to convince traders to relocate to their previous site to pave the way for the building of new stalls by the Nyeri government.

But the traders rejected the calls, saying the move was a ploy by some individuals planning to grab the two-acre plot that they currently operate from.

Mr Wamumbi was the first to address the traders but screams and shouts of "we are not going anywhere, leave us alone, we know your plans, we don't want your lies" forced the shocked MP to cut short his speech.

Mr Wamatinga tried in vain to cool the tempers as the team accompanying him, including Chinese contractors, watched in disbelief.

Mr Wamumbi pleaded with the traders, saying he had come with peace and his visit was meant to find a lasting solution for their woes, but they would hear none of that and ordered him to leave the scene immediately.

The Kenya Railways Corporation has started installing hundreds of container stalls at the site, from where about 2,000 traders were evicted, even as the affected traders changed their mind about going back to the site.

Resettling the traders was one of the campaign pledges made by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

About a month ago, Mr Gachagua’s successor as Mathira MP, Mr Wamumbi, convened a consultative meeting with the traders but they unanimously declined the resettlement plan.

Instead, they asked Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga’s government to build for them a permanent and modern market at the new site where they were relocated. They expressed fears that if they vacated, some people would grab the nearly three acres of open ground.

The forcible evictions by KR that saw thousands of structures demolished drew the wrath of Mr Gachagua, who told the traders at the site at that time that some “powers” had instigated the demolitions to undermine him politically.

The issue also became a campaign tool when former Nyeri senator Ephraim Maina came to the defence of the traders and urged them to stay put.

In the run-up to the August elections, Mr Gachagua, while promoting the Kenya Kwanza coalition’s “bottom-up” economic plans, championed the plight of the traders.

He condemned the demolitions and warned that “payback” time would come for those who “tormented” ordinary Kenyans by denying them their livelihoods. 

He promised the evictees that a new government led by William Ruto would resettle them at the same site once it took over power.