Nairobi News

Hawkers within the Nairobi’S Central Business District (CBD) are decrying harassment from county government officers famously known as kanjo.

Mr Peter Njoroge who is the chairman of the small scale traders in Nairobi County said the officers have been making random arrests and demanding for bribes before they can release goods back to the owners.

“The way the county government officers are operating is not right and all we shall do is pour to the streets and demonstrate,” said Mr Njoroge.

Mr Njoroge said the hawkers had on several occasions tried to reach out to the Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja to share their plight but this was being ignored.

Asked how they were trying to reach out to the county, Mr Njoroge said that they penned letters which were copied to the deputy governor and the county secretary but they have never received any response.

“Why should they bar the hawkers from working along Moi Avenue? Who is this they want to bring here? He posed.

Mr Njoroge said the move to kick hawkers out of Moi Avenue was a larger plot to give room to some powerful individuals.

The most affected place within the city is at the National Archives.

This comes amid announcement that the county will soon increase hawking charges.

Hawkers will have to part with Sh50 on a daily basis in order for them to hawk within the county, a more than hundred percent increase.

Currently, the county government is erecting shades which are connected with electricity and other amenities.

Nairobi residents have been complaining about the hawkers’ menace which they said was making difficult for them to operate within the city.

“When am going home in the evening, just passing through the streets is hard because you might step on the items the hawkers have paraded within the streets and it leads to chaos,” Ms Mary Akinyi said.

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