Give the many hawkers trying to earn an honest living room to operate

City council askaris collect the clothes of a hawker who was allegedly shot dead by a policeman while busy selling his clothes near Khoja mosque, Nairobi.[Standard]

It was the most traumatic thing that I experienced at the age of 10. I had just finished buying two kilos of tomatoes when the ‘kanjos’ (council askaris) jumped out of their fast-moving lorry and with a sudden burst of violence, descended on the hawkers and started beating up everyone.

The hawkers ran for their lives while trying to hang onto their goods. It was all so sad and unnecessary. I was left there wondering how I was going to pay for the tomatoes or whether it was fair to go home with tomatoes that I had not paid for. This was my first encounter with the challenges that hawkers face.