Footpath hawkers kill business in Muthurwa market

Murthurwa market was opened in 2007 to help remove hawkers from the CBD and ease traffic congestion. It was supposed to be a model. 

Built on 15 acres opposite Machakos Country Bus Stage, it housed 10,000 traders and vendors selling produce, foodstuffs, clothes, cosmetics, toys, furniture — you name it.

Fourteen years later, it's clear that the market was a good vision that flopped and it's now on Nairobi Metropolitan Services' list of markets for upgrade and clean-up.

It's filthy, piled with garbage, traders pay street boys to dump rubbish somewhere, they don't care where. The city doesn't bother to collect there.

Hawkers camp on footpaths around the market and at its entrances, taking business away from traders who pay a fee to operate there. More hawkers are coming and some market traders have even given up and moved outside.

From the Haile Selassie Roundabout opposite Kenya Railways, hawkers have camped on the doorstops of Muthurwa and Wakulima markets.

Collins Wamae, 35, has been selling men’s trousers and shoes at Muthurwa for three years. He said business started deteriorating before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, which made everything worse.

As elsewhere, people are crowded together, disregarding spacing, many dismissing masks and hygiene.

Why bother to come inside the market and shop when you can get almost everything outside? And sometimes at better prices. 

“Business has been so bad some traders inside the market join hawkers outside and don't need to pay for space inside," Wamae said. "People shop outside and there's no reason to enter."

Hawkers still remain the 'owners' of the CBD.

“I sell potatoes, cabbages and carrots. Right outside Muthurwa hawkers sell the same and some at cheaper prices. My business cannot blossom unless the hawkers are relocated," trader Juliet Mueni said.

Traders said the ‘kanjo’ are reluctant to do their duty and clear the outside hawkers away.

NMS plans to upgrade eight markets, including Muthurwa. The others are Jericho, Wakulima, Landhies Road, Kariobangi South, Kayole Spine Road, Embakasi and Uhuru. 

They will be renovated, drainage will be improved and ablution facilities provided.

During a visit by the Star over the weekend, many traders were seated at their stations, chatting, in hopes of selling merchandise by day's end.

The market has small open trenches for drainage, the water is dirty but it flows freely and there's minimal flooding, even during rainy seasons.

Most of the ground is cemented, so there's no mud, except at the entrance facing the Machakos Country Bus, which is often muddy.

Despite the outside competition, the market is crowded with traders. Most have red iron sheets for roofs and newcomers put up plastic sheets and nylon for roofs.

" There is not enough space so most of us use nylon sheets to protect us from the sun and rain," cereals trader Jacklene Wambui said.

Initially, the market had two main entrances, one from the matatu terminus and another one along Landhies Road opposite Machakos Country Bus but now there are many gates along Haile Selassie Avenue

To light the market, small bulbs are strung on wires looped from from roof to roof.

“I can't tell whether the power connection is illegal but I know some of us pay Sh100 per week for  electricity,” trader Emmanuel Sakwa said.

Though there's a police post next to the market, security is poor. The footbridge linking the market with the Machakos Country Bus is abandoned to pickpockets and muggers, it's littered with garbage. No one uses it.

“Very few people use the bridge, especially women, because it is unsafe," Mama mboga Catherine Apiyo said.

After the hawkers, the next biggest problem is uncollected garage.

Over time, the county has stopped collecting rubbish and cleaning the market daily, traders say.

“Each trader cleans his or her own space. At times we pay the street boys Sh10 to Sh30 to dispose of the waste. Where they dump it is not our concern," shoe seller Michael Wafula said.

Since 2017, garbage collection and disposal has been left to the traders. The entry of NMS made the situation confusing.

Traders said only after the media shames the government does it bother to collect rubbish. After a few days, it doesn't bother, the rubbish piles up, along  with the rest of the traders' problems.

(Edited by V. Graham)