Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson announced that the county is close to finishing 20 new or upgraded markets, noting Gikomba Market is 98% complete and South B Market 97% complete, while Maji Mazuri Market has already opened.

The governor linked the market build‑out to Kenya’s estimated annual food loss of nine million tonnes, valued at roughly KSh 72 billion, a figure cited from World Resources Institute research.

He argued that halving these losses could feed more than seven million additional Kenyans each year without expanding cultivated land, provided markets incorporate cold‑storage, grading, packaging and processing services.

Sakaja highlighted the Dishi Na County school‑feeding programme, which supplies 324,000 learners across 230 public schools with about 37 tonnes of food daily, as a model for creating predictable demand that benefits farmers.

He urged producing counties to link cooperatives directly to Nairobi’s markets and institutional kitchens through transparent procurement, positioning the capital as a major consumption hub that influences food values.

The governor framed the market modernisation as part of a broader effort to build an efficient food system where cold‑chain infrastructure and processing capacity shorten the distance between producers and consumers, boosting farmer earnings and ensuring fair consumer prices.