Why Kenyans Have No Time For Hawkers: We Admire Thieves And Big Time Crooks Instead

It is interesting that this has come up at a time when the government seems to have declared war on hawkers ad small traders in general.

Alnoor Kassam admits in the Standard articles that he cut his business teeth selling his book matches door to door and quite often he would set up temporary street stalls to sell the matches to passersby. That is hawking.

One of he reasons why the government and many Kenyans have no time for hawkers is because of the culture we have promoted that is really a bad hangover from the colonial era. Kenyans have no respect for the small trader or hawker who starts small and grows their business to success.

In the minds of Kenyans (and especially the current government) these are petty (nuisance) traders who take ages to grow their business. Or to quote my favourite regular lady commentator and supporter of this blog, who recently told a story about how she had somebody referring to the whole hawker issue; hawkers are riff raff that need to be cleared from the streets. These are actually stupid people who are not serious business people.

I will tell you the kind of people Kenyans respect. They respect thieves of public funds and corrupt entrepreneurs who give a bribe and make their money overnight. These business people, in the minds of many Kenyans will dress smartly and have flashy offices and cars.

Sorry guys. Those are not business people. They are not entrepreneurs. They are thieves, thugs and the real riff raff that Kenya does not need. Period.

But it was clear from the President's speech last night on KBC TV that "his government" (as he is always so fond of referring to it) prefers big business. Small traders should operate as far away as possible from the city and pieces of land have in fact been purchased for them in the furthest outskirts possible. The whole idea is so that the "riff raff" can do their business as far away from the city center as possible.

The situation has been made worse by the fact that in Kenya we allow senior government officials to do business. They use their positions to make quick money at the expense of the public and then call themselves businesspersons. These are the businesses that want all riff raff taken as far away as possible from the city.

I am not saying that hawkers should be given a free hand in the CBD (Central Business District). What I am saying is that we need to be a little more creative than the colonial government (those are the bylaws being used here) and what looks like a nuisance can be "the engine" to create jobs and turn Kenya into a major African Tiger. What's wrong with hawkers being licensed to trade in small side streets in downtown Nairobi? Or on major streets on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning when other shops are closed?

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See also Problem Tribes in Kenyan politics

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