By Saio Marrah
With support from an independent aspirant for the Freetown Mayoral position, Serray Kabba, over 500 youths have commenced cleaning of major markets in the Freetown municipality, starting with the Dove Cut and Magazine Cut markets.
The cleaning process started on Sunday 11th December, 2022, with the youths being grouped, each with their Chairman and Chairlady.
The Coordinator for the cleaning exercise, Abass Kabba, said they embarked on the cleaning exercise of the market communities’ to address the untidiness of the business environments, which he said is dangerous to their health including the children.
Commenting on how Serray has supported them in the cleaning process, he said they have received logistics, trucks, and other supporting facilities from her.
Kabba said they will continue with the cleaning exercise at the Bombay market the next Sunday, and then Krootown road market and all the other major markets in Freetown.
One of the Chairmen of the youth groups, Alhaji Kamara, called on Serray to continue with the cleaning exercise so that people will be able to buy from a clean environment.
A market woman at Dove Cut , Emma Conteh, after expressing their appreciation for the initiative, she recalled how they have been losing customers due to the too much mud in the market.
She also narrated how that has affected their livelihoods. Conteh also talked about how they have been paying to council their market dues for which they expect cleaning of the market to done in return, but claimed that such has not been realised.
In her whatsapp voice message, Serray, who is currently based in the United States of America, noted that in her recent visit to Freetown she discovered that the situation in all the markets especially in the Dove Cut community, where she said she grew up was in terrible state in terms of filth.
Kabba also talked about how the market women had been calling on her for intervention since she is from the community.
According to her, for the past six years she has been engaging in cleaning of the drainages to ensure water does not overflow in communities when it rains.
She also talked about how she had also been constructing bridges and other structures.
Kabba said her interest for the Mayoral position was inspired by the constraints of the market women. Those challenges she said range from lack of cleaning and infrastructures.
According to her, she decided to contest for the position as an independent candidate because the two main political parties (All People’s Congress and the Sierra Leone People’s Party) have failed the people by not fulfilling their promises.
She said when one is working as an independent candidate you will be able to get hands on the job. This she said will enable one to work in the interest of the people on the ground and not in the interest of a political party.
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