If you've been in Nairobi of late, the I guess you've heard of the recent series of riots/chaos/fracas caused by the hawkers who claim that they have a right to peddle their wares in the CBD. Now I tend to be a fair man so I think we should analyse the situation critically.
About three years back, they were moved from the streets amid calls for the then minister for local government to resign and alloted spaces within the back and sidestreets of downtown Nairobi. all went well for a while but the hawkers slowly began to trickle back into town and pretty soon they were back in the cbd causing all sorts of chaos. So the government alloted them an entire market place at a place called Ngara and tehy were all asked to register with the Ministry of Local Government then get allocated stalls at the new market. This happened and for about a week there was calm on the streets and anybody could walk around the streets freely.
Then they began to trickle back into the streets again and ever since it has been a battle royale with the city council and policce officer that has led to the deaths of about five pople so far. I believe the hawkers are selling themselves short for as long as they remain on the streets nothing can be done for them. They need to move to the market and stay there and the customers will find their way to the market, simply put it is a problem that they keep fuelling themselves and it will never end, not until they move to the market and stay there.
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