Garissa Lodge: Business hive with nine lives

By Allan Olingo

Opened as a lodging facility for travellers in the aftermath of Siad Barre’s fall in Somalia in 1987, Garissa Lodge soon became a refuge for many Somali nationals fleeing the civil war.

It is claimed that then the Somali migrants eked out a living out of their savings but when that money ran out, the migrants opened their bags, spread out the last of their goods on their beds and began selling. That is how the place got its fame!

Soon, Garissa Lodge evolved from a simple boarding house into a bustling trading centre in a neighbourhood that was about to see a commercial explosion.

Initially, many Somali businessmen were barred from working and trading in Kenya because of the refugee status, so they started circulating their money in an underground economy. With time, they also moved into the poorly regulated matatu industry and through reinvesting their returns in imports from Dubai, Garissa Lodge became a hub of business activity.

"The streets then were cluttered but non-threatening and kiosks served up excellent food to the sound of exotic Somali music. Garissa Lodge was a place where Somali transporters parked their double trailers alongside streets, and their women ran lodgings; the Kikuyu women sold produce and their men ran bars, and miraa (Khat) traders hung up their banana leaf flags outside shops," he says.

Gold traders

Dhadow says that then, Garissa Lodge was famed for its gold traders, who presented a twist on the standard business model.

"We had young women bedecked in gold rings, necklaces, earrings, and bangles perched on low stools in an inner courtyard of the malls. Together with the moneychangers located nearby, they would propel the underground economy and were the evidence of the wealth that was concentrated in this neighbourhood," he adds.

These merchants, he says, conducted their trade casually in the absence of any formal security arrangements.

There were, if any, few security guards, and no security cameras. Violent robbers were more selective and they did not mess with the Somalis.

It changed in the mid 90s when pickpockets and shoplifters started working within the crowds. Now it’s a common sight to see brazen youth preying on the slow-moving vehicles, snatching bags, watches, and jewellery alike.

But the lodge has carried on with its secrecy as the occupants were hostile when Home & Away tried to take photos both outside and inside the malls.

In late 2000, a fire gutted Garissa Lodge. Some suspected arson, claiming that

For the informal small-scale traders, a lot more than there stock was lost. Without proper identification cards, and with the then stringent banking regulations, many had been unable to bank their money so they kept it in their stalls. It is claimed that burning bank notes could be seen floating from the gutted building.

The new Garissa Lodge is now more of a general area than a single building. It is a series of shopping malls that rose from the ashes of the original building on First Avenue. It houses tens of shopping malls that have been built over the past decade. Each mall is a four or five storey concrete building with about 50 shops. There are also restaurants, clinics, schools, banks and trade colleges in the area. Recently there has been a growth in high-end hotels serving the higher cadre of clientele who come for business missions.

The mall has set the standard for Eastleigh’s glitzy shopping complexes. Enticing aromas and sounds waft from the nondescript kiosks that also house high-tech communication facilities connecting the locals to the Diaspora. These shopping malls broke the Asian stranglehold on retail commerce in Nairobi by offering a wider range of goods at lower prices to thousands of shoppers daily.