It seems Kenya was not meant to be hustler’s nation

Spikes on a city building to stop hustlers from resting. [XN Iraki]

Kenya is now a hustler’s nation with over 80 per cent of the population earning a living from the informal sector. But since becoming a semblance of a nation in 1895, it seems the country was never meant to be a hustlers’ abode.

There is enough evidence from history to the present that seems to suggest that being a hustler in Kenya is a mistake.

Let us start from history where upper class Britons came and settled in Kenya after WW I and II. Going by the houses they built and the lives they lived, the Britons - who made Happy Valley and adjoining white highlands their home were no hustlers. Biographies of a number of them show they schooled in Eton or Oxbridge.

Their titles from colonel to general also suggest upper class origin.

There is even an old saying that Kenya was the officers’ mess, Zimbabwe was sergeants’ mess, and South Africa was for the rest of the troops.

After independence this mentality persisted, with a class system entrenched despite all the talk of freedom. How come even today signboards like “no entry for matatus” are still hanging around?

Hustlers are excluded from the roads with no walking paths. Yet Kenya has only about two million cars.  Most roads are made for cars, not human beings.

Jobless corner

There are still signs like “no idling around” with spikes to ensure no hustler can sit and rest.  Is the jobless corner near Hilton Hotel still there? We even brought down toilets for hustlers in the city; they now have to pay. Do those in offices pay for toilets?

Hustlers have their crowded residences, matatus, hospitals and even churches.

Hustlers only matter when they are consumers to make money from. They are often seen as a nuisance; they are blamed for everything, from theft to pollution.

We even try to keep them away from the ‘clean’ central business district lest they make the place dirty or ‘uncool’. We gate our communities to keep out hustlers, not sabre-toothed tigers.

Hustlers are left on their own, with each generation of politicians promising them a golden age as they cheer and clap. Few hustlers escape into ‘sonkohood’, majority even pass their hustlehood to the next generation. Culture and education ensure only a few change their socio-economic class.

One hopes that someday, we shall start appreciating the role hustlers play in our economy beyond being loyal consumers. We hope to one day realise that without hustlers and their numbers, the economy would grind to a halt.

Yet one way to make our economy grow faster is to treat hustlers as an integral part of the economy. If their ambition, energy and dreams are well harnessed, they could make a big economic difference.

Was USA not built by hustlers given an opportunity? That hustler you look down upon walking home, selling madazi, cleaning your house and guarding it needs respect. He or she could usher Kenya into its golden economic age.

[XN Iraki; [email protected]; Twitter: @Hustlenomics7]