City Hall revokes licences for Nairobi street hawkers

The Nairobi County government has cancelled all hawkers’ licences after an unspecified number of permits were issued "fraudulently" on its online system, allowing the traders to operate in the central business district.

The county has asked the hawkers to manually re-apply for the licences as it announced that residents found buying their goods in undesignated areas risk arrest and a Sh200 fine.

“There has been a fraudulent issuance of electronic licences from our system. Those licences now stand revoked,” said Nairobi County Trade executive Anna Othoro on Friday.

She added that hawking within the CBD is illegal and only newspaper vendors and shoe shiners are allowed to operate on the streets.

In recent times, there has been a large influx of hawkers in the streets of Nairobi especially to the east of Tom Mboya Street.

Some of the traders who acquired the licences have obtained court injunctions stopping City Hall from evicting them from the CBD.

Ms Othoro said that it is wrong to sell clothes and shoes outside premises that stock similar items and pay rent.

The county will however continue to allow a vetted group of hawkers to sell their wares on the parking stretch outside Gill House on weekends only.

The directive could set off a fresh round of confrontations between the hawkers and the county askaris. Previous conflicts between the two groups have sometimes turned violent with several hawkers losing their lives.