The Nairobi county government has invited members of the public to give their views on hawking within the city’s Central Business District.
In a gazette notice dated October 14, 2022 , Nairobi county secretary Jairus Musumba invited all interested parties including the hawkers to give their views in scheduled meetings.
"In this respect, the Nairobi city county government invites interested stakeholders for public participation and consultation on informal trading within Nairobi CBD,” Musumba said.
He said the consultative engagements will be held on the 3rd and 4th of November at City Hall’s Charter House.
Consumer associations, special interest groups, community-based organizations, business owners within CBD, private and public sector representatives have been invited to be part of the public participation meetings.
During campaigns, governor Johnson Sakaja pledged that he would prioritise addressing the plight of hawkers in the city.
He assured the business community in Nairobi that he would bring to an end the hardships they experience in the course of their work.
Hawker menace in the CBD has been a problem that the previous county regimes failed to decisively deal with.
It was a weak link that critics used to highlight administrative failures of the past county regimes.
With Sakaja at the helm, the hawker menace is still a big headache particularly in the evening when the traders occupy all the walkways leaving pedestrians to battle it out with vehicles on the main streets.
This causes confusion and traffic congestion.
First city governor Evans Kidero blamed what he called cartels at City Hall for the hawker menace.
He accused former Councillors and MPs of pushing for their return to the CBD every time the county government pushed them off the streets.
His successor Mike Sonko promised to organise hawkers within the first 100 days of his administration.
The plan was to register all the hawkers, small-scale business owners and traders with a view to recognise, protect and enable them to operate in the city.
The strategy backfired and hawkers have ever since remained an eyesore and a permanent fixture on Nairobi streets.
