Webuye market investor friendly despite infrastructural challenges

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-05-27 10:31:00 Read 281 Times

A section of second hand clothes traders at the Webuye market without proper stalls.[Photos/Rosemary Wachiye-WestFm] Much focus is given to big cities and towns forgetting upcoming towns yet they are just as essential as the urban centers. Webuye market in Webuye town for instance, is among the largest markets in Bungoma District and the larger Bungoma County serving people from all over the region and beyond.   It contains various sections like the clothes section, chicken section, shoes section, bags section, cattle section, and section for selling grains and other business establishments and investments and is a potential market town for investors both local and foreign. A buyer weighs a cockerel at the Webuye market before purcahsing it.  The market is well maintained by the Municipal council of Webuye with well maintained sewerage system thus creating a conducive working environment both for the traders and customers who throng the market every Wednesday and other days. Seeking why the trader’s prefer this market, some of the cattle sellers were first to say that it is an attractive site for their target customers there by making them get a easier platform to market and sell their goods. “We bring our cattle to this market because it has a large customer base and it is conveniently close to our residence,” Mr. Ambrose Wanjala, cattle seller who hails from the within the area said. However at the moment, the price of most goods has declined, among them cattle in two months now since the price for a dairy cow dropped from Sh20, 000 to Sh15, 000, that of a calf had moved from Sh10,000 to approximately  Sh7,000 and lastly the price for beef cattle had moved from Sh40, 000 to Sh25, 000. Besides, the cattle traders stated that the reason to the low prices was because of prolonged drought season that made it had for farmers especially those actively engaged in agriculture with food crops as their main activity. Said Wanjala; “Due to the high level of poverty, people prefer to spend their cash on buying maize and beans for feeding the family than to buy cattle.” Cattle trade at the Webuye market. Most buyers in the region complained of high cost of living that had been brought about by the increase in food prices all over the country. They also lamented that despite the raise in maize prices, the buyers do not get the value for their cash as most of the tins used to measure the maize are often cut by the traders and reduced to almost ¾ the expected size. “We often get a big loss from buying maize because if we buy around 10 kg after picking out the dirt, we are only left with around 6 kg and yet the maize prices have shot up from Sh60 to Sh120,” said Mr. David Murenga, a buyer. Increased fuel prices have been noted as among the major contributing factors to the raise in prices of most goods in the country. At the Webuye market, the bundle of clothes that previously would be obtained from Mombasa and Nairobi at Sh8, 000 was now obtained at Sh10, 000 to Sh12, 000 per bundle. Fuel prices have also contributed to increase in prices of most food crops that are obtained and transported from far off places in the country for instance mangoes from Malaba and Mombasa, oranges, groundnuts, beans, millet, cassava, tomatoes, and cabbages among other commodities. This is evidence enough of the high costs of living which residents of Webuye have high hopes that with the implementation of the new constitution it will help relieve Kenyans from this strain of expense. Speaking to some of them, they pin pointed that the Government has been slow in implementing the new Constitution and that the snail speed towards the same is alarming. They also added that the new Constitution was the only savior towards good living standards and hence will improve their lives through industrialization and vetting of any officers who wish to occupy any office to sieve out the corrupt. “It is eminent that most politicians are behaving as if we are still in the YES or NO campaign and yet the Constitution is already there and just waiting to be put into place,” said Mr. Walinywa Mukhamule who also decried of the poor strategies for economic and industrialization. He also pointed out that it had been a singsong with the government’s endless promise to reduce the prices fro fuel and food. To many, these expectations were not forthcoming.