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There is an ‘epidemic’ of hawkers all over Nairobi CBD, courtesy of bureaucracy, a court order and a malfunctioning digital system that has seen them clog city streets.
A glitch in the Nairobi City County’s online payment system has enabled hawkers to get valid licences to operate in traditional no-go areas like Kenyatta Avenue and even City Hall Way.
“Before the online payment system became effective, you had to apply and state the street on which you intended to sell your wares. City Hall only gave hawkers specific streets, but the new system can pick out appropriate streets, so if a hawkers applies for licence to sell on University Way, the payment will be processed and a valid certificate issued.
Hawkers then took advantage by getting a court order prohibiting Kanjos from evicting them from streets like Mama Ngina, Kimathi and Kenyatta Avenue,” said a highly-placed source in City Hall.
In court papers available to The Nairobian, a group of lawyers took the county government to court and got an injunction against the city inspectorate department from evicting them from the streets they got licences to operate on.
“The defendant is hereby restrained by way of an interim injunction from interfering with the business of the plaintiff along Kimathi Street and Safi Lanes within Nairobi City County in so far as they are within the limits of their business permits issued pending the hearing and determination of this application,” reads the injunction issued at the Milimani Commercial Courts on May 20.
Even before the issuance of the injunction, the lawyers had presented their businesses licences to court, claiming they had been granted permission to sell on streets like Mama Ngina, Kenyatta Avenue and even Kimathi Street.
The judge asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to confirm if indeed the licences were valid. In a letter dated June 15, 2016, HM Agwena, the Director of Trade Licensing wrote back to the DCIO, Central Police Nairobi, confirming that the licences the hawkers had brought before court were indeed valid.
With the city tied up by a court injunction, and employment of 700 more inspectorate officials, there is no end in sight to stop the hawker menace within the city.
