Kenyans open businesses early to increase sales a day after 8pm curfew takes effect

Small businesses along Tom Mboya street, Nairobi were open as early as 5:30 am. [Winfrey Owino, Standard]

Kenyans in the capital kicked off the day earlier than usual, a day after the new dusk to dawn curfew time was effected.

This, according to those who interacted with Standard Digital this morning, was one way they had devised to try and compensate for the reduced business operating hours and give their businesses a lifeline amidst the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“On a normal day, we open our businesses at 6:30 am and close a few minutes past 9 pm. But since we have to be closed by 7 pm to get home on time, we decided to open earlier and see if it will make a difference in our sales,’’ said a businessman along Tom Mboya street who only identified himself as Peter.

As early as 5:30 am on Monday, Nairobi’s Central Business District was a beehive of activity.

Aside from the darkness, one could easily say that it was midday as a result of the activities that took place at dawn.

Several businesses were up and running. Public transport was on the move, ferrying people into and out of the city, presumably to their respective places of work.

But one could not help but notice some travellers, in possession of heavy luggage, moving about town. Most of these were stranded the previous night and ended up spending the night along the streets after they got to the city a little past curfew time.

“I got here last night at about 9:30 pm. The matatu dropped us in town but by then it was late, there were no matatus to take us home. We opted to spend the night here and sort ourselves in the morning to avoid problems with the police,” narrated Jane Nabwire, a mother of two.

Jane had travelled from Kakamega yesterday to be in Nairobi by 8 pm after the government issued a grace period to allow people to travel into and out of the Disease Infected Zone.

In his address on Friday last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave an executive order ceasing movement into and out of five neighbouring counties which are now marked as the Disease Infected Zone (DIZ).

The five counties, Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu and Nakuru, were marked as DIZ after statistics from the Ministry of Health indicated that the counties are leading in Covid-19 infections.