Business activities were going on as usual in Kabarnet town, the headquarters of Baringo county despite yesterday’s nationwide Gen-Z demonstrations to commemorate the second anniversary of June 25, 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests.
Operations in businesses like hotels and shops ran normally since early morning; their routine was not affected as there was prevailing peace and calmness across the town.
Joyce Chepchieng, a Jua kali business owner was operating her business just as the previous days when KNA visited her premise on Thursday afternoon.
“Here in Juakali Street business have been going on well. I opened my shop at 8 am, customers have been purchasing and we have been selling different items since people here are peaceful as there has been no disturbance and we are not expecting anything unusual to happen,” said Chepchieng.
Furthermore, trading activities at Kabarnet Municipal market continued as usual, we met Margaret Talam, a fresh vegetables seller proceeding normally with her business activities.
“We thank God that here in Kabarnet especially at the market, business is going on as usual, I have been selling vegetables from morning and I have not seen any demonstrations around here,” said Talam.
At Kabarnet Municipal matatu terminus, public service vehicles were running their daily activities as usual although there was minimal number of passengers as compared to every working day; Kabarnet -Nakuru route matatus had few passengers as they feared for their safety because of the nationwide Gen- Z demonstrations.
By 2 pm on some drivers had not made a single trip and their vehicles were parked due to a few number of travellers.
Enock kiptoo who is a driver operating Kabarnet-Nakuru route said that he has been at the parking lot for seven hours since morning because there were few passengers who could not fill the carrying capacity.
Kiptoo said passengers who were around the terminus feared that they may get stranded after reaching Nakuru which was one of the areas that experienced the protests.
Matatus operating Marigat-Kabarnet and Kabarnet-Eldoret routes was also affected by the nationwide GenZ demonstrations and some of the drivers plus the touts expressed their dissatisfaction because they did not get money after failing to get passengers.
“Today I am eating boiled maize for lunch but usually I eat a heavy meal like ugali nyama,” said one of the affected matatu driver Ernest Chebon.
Despite Kabarnet and other towns of Baringo county being peaceful, there has been heavy presence of police patrolling the streets to ensure that there was no disturbance or destruction of personal property.
By Naomi Kipsang and Christopher Kiprop
