Sukuma Gate Sacco members are pleading with the County Government of Garissa not to demolish their stalls where they have been earning their daily bread for long.
The members, mostly comprising mama mbogas and petty traders decried the planned eviction from their stalls after Garissa Municipality, through the Enforcement Notice, Form P.P.A. 7, dated January 2024, proposed demolition of structures along police line in Garissa town.
The notice accuses the traders of constructing illegal structures and occupying the land without following the laid down procedures as per the provisions of Part V of the Physical Planning Act.
The physical planning act makes provisions for the orderly development of land to preserve and improve the amenities thereof and for the grant of permission to develop land and for other powers of control over the use of land.
In the enforcement notice signed by Abdi Osman, head of building control unit and seen by Sacco Review, it warns that any person who uses the land to which the notice relates or carries out or permits to carry out operations on the said land will be contravening the notice and shall be guilty of an offence as provided for by section 30 of the act.
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Talking to the Sacco Review, the members of the Police Line Sacco said the enforcement notice has ambushed them during these hard economic times.
Denying that the stalls were illegal structure, a petty trader who sought anonymity said for many years they have been paying the municipality and even the county for periodical or yearly licences. “If these stalls were illegal structures as alleged in the enforcement letter then it means the municipality has been aiding and abetting crime by accepting payment for the same,’’ said the trader.
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Since the notice notes that the area is subject to permission for development /subdivision of the land as described by physical planning act which hasn’t been complied with, a human right activist in Garissa town Kulmiye Somane acknowledges that not all traders were served with the enforcement notice.
‘’Downplaying the biting plight and the hard economic time the ordinary folks are undergoing, the plan is to chuck out the majority petty traders and replace them with a prominent county official,” Somane said.
The human activist says that their chama risk collapsing because most members will default on repaying loans due to hard economic times, as a result of Covid 19.
‘’By demolishing our kiosks which cost us an arm and a leg is sure death sentence by the known elected MCA,’’ said another trader adding the idea is trample on the poor electorate but benefit a single person for pure selfish economic gains.
By Amoto Ndiewo
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