Angry Gikomba Traders Calls for Probing in the Dawn Fire which Destroyed Property worth Millions

Efforts to put down the fire were still in top gear on Monday morning as county employees, and distraught traders trooped to the market to assess the damage.

Several videos posted online showed a huge fire engulfing stalls in the market although the exact damage or cause of the fire is yet being determined.

Traders who lost stalls in the mysterious fire said they were alerted to the incident at around 1 am on Monday.

Faith Wambui, one of the traders who lost everything in the fire said she learned of the incident at around 1 am, and by that time, everything she knew had been reduced to ashes.

"Kila mwaka knachomeka at least twice, imagine kuwekuwa na corona, sasa ni moto, tutafanya nini sasa," Wambui asked

The traders say that 2015 was the last time they witnessed a fire incident of such magnitude.

"Hapa mahali tumesimama ndio huwa tunauzia, tuko na ma-loans, na kila wakati tukijaribu kusimama, kunatokea moto,"

"Hii ndio shamba yetu, kila kitu tunatoa hapa, sasa tunashindwa, heri wangekuwa

Nairobi county fire engines that arrived at the scene had a hard time battling the flames that rose high and burned relentlessly.

Gikomba has battled multiple fire incidents in the recent past, with the most recent being in June, August, and October.

The latest incident comes days after a Nairobi Court allowed the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to evict at least 174 traders from the market to pave way for the expansion of a health sector.

The open-air Gikomba market neighbors Pumwani Majengo Health Centre.