Lawmakers’ supporters, market traders feud over Witeithie toilet
By Mathew.Ndungu, October 6, 2022
A fresh row has emerged over management of a public lavatory at Witeithie market in Juja, Kiambu County threatening to reinstate longstanding sanitation challenges that traders have been grappling with for decades.
The lavatory that was built by MP George Koimburi as a campaign strategy during the constituency by-elections early last year is at the centre of a push-and-pull between current market management and his campaigners.
After completion, the latrine was handed over to Kiambu County government before it was later given to the market management for administration.
A year after the exercise, a group that was given mandate to operate it is reported to have been ousted by a section of some market traders, a development that has occasioned a simmering dispute between the two groups.
Current administration
Yesterday, some traders had reportedly planned to assume the toilet’s management, a move that was thwarted by the current administrators who vowed to stay put.
“The fight over management of this toilet is threatening to take us back to the days we used to relieve ourselves in the bushes. We want the county and our MP to agree on who should run the affairs of this facility,” Eliud Njoroge, a trader said.
In a letter, Koimburi had last year written to Juja Sub-County administrator Celina Muriithi seeking to have the toilet operated by Wema Self Help Group, a request that was dismissed by Muriithi who insisted that the facility would remain under the management of the market committee until public procurement is procedurally done.
In her response letter, Muriithi revealed that the county will rebrand the facility but before then, the current management has powers to rebrand it in neutral colours of black and white.
But traders at the market insist that Koimburi and the market committee should have a truce to resolve the stalemate that if unaddressed could cause damage. “We want peace and the management of this toilet should be determined to resolve the current commotions,” Joyce Kamau, another pleaded.