City Hall restricts hawkers to designated backstreets in Nairobi CBD

Hawkers in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD) have been restricted to designated backstreets and lanes, effective immediately, in a bid to bring order to the city centre.

In a notice by Godfrey Akumali, the Acting County Secretary and Head of County Public Service, City Hall announced that hawking will only be allowed from Monday to Saturday from 4pm to 10pm, in specified areas.

"The designated backstreets are within the zone from Tom Mboya Street to Kirinyaga Road. No hawking will be allowed on the main streets and roads," reads the notice.

Moi Avenue, Haile Selassie Avenue, Kenneth Matiba Road, Latema Road, Ronald Ngala Street, Mangano Street, Hakati Road, and River Road are some of the streets and roads where hawkers will not be permitted.

The county government also pointed out that walkways in the CBD are reserved strictly for pedestrians and not for trading.

Violators of the new rules will face prosecution under Nairobi City County Government by-laws.

For decades, managing hawkers in the CBD has been a challenge for successive administrations. In 2023, Governor Johnson Sakaja's administration designated specific lanes in the lower CBD for hawkers.

City Hall inspected the lanes, marked and numbered them, and cleared them to make them suitable for trade. However, hawkers were not relocated and continued to occupy available spaces in the city centre.

On October 25, 2023, Sakaja ordered a crackdown on hawkers in the CBD.

"There will be no hawking on the road. In fact, I'm enforcing it even around the bus station. I will not allow that. Nairobi will be a city of order and dignity. There will be no hawking on roads, and that is not negotiable," he said.

The crackdown, however, lasted only two days and failed to provide a lasting solution.

Hawkers upto date continue to block roads and pavements, crowd out pedestrians, obstruct business entrances, and contribute to garbage problems, frustrating legitimate traders.