Jack Omondi or ‘Omosh the bellman,’ oversees the feeding of five of Nairobi’s residential areas from 5 am when the city wakes up.
Omosh is the ‘chief crier’ at the Soko Mjinga market in Korogocho slums, the city’s third largest after Kibra and Mathare.
The over 150,000 people who live there, and five times that number in neighbouring areas, depend on him to set the ‘food chain’ market in motion.
Although generally regarded as poor settlement infested with criminals, prostitution and all sorts of vices that can attract the police, there is a hierarchy of order with Omosh the bellman at the top.
Once he rings the bell, women start running in one direction with their viondo, magunia and buckets. “This bell signals time for purchase of specific commodities,” Omosh explains. That bell kick-starts activities at the Soko Mjinga market in Korogocho, nicknamed ‘Koch’.
The Soko Mjinga in Koch feeds over 150,000 stomachs, according to the 2009 census, and its five neighbouring residential areas including Mathare, Huruma, Baba Dogo, Kariadudu, Dandora, Kariobangi North and South and Umoja estate.
Omosh the bellman told The Nairobian that the Soko Mjinga market has fed that part of the city for over 30 years with its low-priced food and other items (hence its name that translate to ‘fools’ market’), including cutlery bearing airline emblems.
The bell ringer was introduced four years ago when things got out of hand as traders from as far as Thika, Kiambu and even Nyeri flocked Soko Mjinga with abnormally priced commodities that sold for as low one shilling.
The bell ringer restored normalcy, especially for perishable food items, such as tomatoes and sukuma wiki, which are first off the market.
The bell is rung twice a day. The first ring is at 5 am, signalling the closure of the main gate for trucks ferrying perishables accessing the market. Any truck arriving after the bell has gone is barred from the holding area until the following day.
Perishable goods are sold until 10:45 am before the second bell rings at 11 am to signal closure of the market.
Isaac Waweru, the chair of the Korogocho Association, explained that “We realised that people could walk into the market and sell their goods, more so perishables, at unregulated prices of as low as Sh1, forcing other traders to either lower prices or incur huge losses. That is why we decided to come up with an association to moderate prices and later the use of the bell.”
The Soko Mjinga market has over 20 associations, but the one that stands out is the Korogocho Tomato Association, whose 12 office-bearers are governed by a constitution - which forbids members from smoking or drunkenness while on duty.
Offenders are fined between Sh500 and Sh1, 000 or face a two-week suspension.
