Kenya: Businessmen Protest Filth in Narok Town

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TRADERS in Narok have protested the town's poor sanitary condition. The traders asked the county government to begin clearing dirt and gabbage from the town's streets. Chairman of Narok Central Business Association David ole Sankok said the county government has done very little to improve the town's cleanliness.

He said traders have lost more than Sh600 million due to bad roads. Salkok said the roads were rendered impassable by floods during rainy season. "We cannot watch helplessly as the traders continue to incur huge losses. We are giving the county government upto February 4 to meet our demands. If they do not, we will relocate to their offices," he said.

Sankok was speaking to the Star in Narok town yesterday. He said the stalled construction of a bridge in the town exposes traders to a health hazard. "The site is a danger zone because it has no signs to alert people of the ongoing constructions," Sankok said.

He said their please to teh county government over the worsening situation have fell on deaf ears. He added that they have pleaded several times to the county government to reverted the situation but they have not responded to their demands. "Every time the floods hit the town , the lives are lost and property worth millions of shillings are lost,"said Sankok.

The Narok-based medic said nothing had been done to rectify what caused the frequent flooding in the town. "We are sitting on a time bomb and an eye sore that why as the traders, if the county government will act in time we will relocate our businesses," he said. He also said the state of the town was scaring investors who had started trooping to the town after it was classified as a business-friendly town, three years ago.

New Executive Member in charge of Environment, Water, Energy and Natural resources Vivian Sereti Mpetti said 900 youths and women have been hired to clean the town adding that the hired will engage in collecting litter, garbage and unblocking drainage systems.

"During the rainy season the blocked drainage systems lead to instant floods in the town and bring all businesses to halt. Business people have incurred losses running into millions of shillings but we want to assure them that this is going to be reversed," said Mpetti.