| dc.description.abstract | Petty traders have been an integral part of
Nairobi's economy since the city was founded in 1899. At
first, Africans bartered fruit and vegetables while
mostly Asian traders introduced currency and sold flashy,
imported goods. To earn money to buy the trinkets,
Africans had to work. The authorities encouraged Africans
to join this consumer culture as a means of enticing them
to labour on white settler farms.
Some Africans, however, chose trading as an
alternative to low-paid, unskilled wage labour because
they could earn many more shillings. Three types of
traders emerged. Supplementary traders sold goods to
augment income from agriculture or wage labour. Subsistence
traders supported themselves from hawking, but
barely earned enough to survive. Accumulator petty
traders made enough profits to reinvest savings in their
businesses or land.
During an economic boom after World War Two
Africans flocked to Nairobi. Unskilled workers earned
paltry wages so petty traders sold tea, "uji" porridge
and second-hand trousers at low pr ices the labourers
could afford. Authorities aevised layers of laws which
regulated what, where and when petty traders could sell
their goods.
The colonial economic set-up and repressive
regulations Q,f.. the state pushed hawkers into political
activity. In the early 1950s, some petty traders assisted
the Mau Mau movement, but dur ing the emergency, the
authorities virtually banned hawking. In the early 1960s,
traders organized five major groups to fight plans to
sweep them off the street. Poor job seekers flooded into
Nairobi and thousands of Africans set up shop on streets,
prompting the government to consider imposing another
emergency. But in an extraordinary, but short-lived
display of unity, the hawker groups banded together and
scored major victories by lobbying the city council.
By the 1970s, the petty trader elite was hiring
employees and building makeshift "kiosk" structures. Two
main trader organizations survived, representing the
small sector of petty traders which had advanced and
reinvested profits. Many single women hawkers were unable
to advance because profits went to supporting children.
The petty trading sector, mirroring the inequality of the
larger Kenyan economy, ended up consisting of a small
elite of licensed,- mostly male traders with kiosks and a
mass of unlicensed, females who hawked produce. The
International Labour Office suggested in a 1972 report
that people engaged in economic activity outside the
formal economic sector should be encouraged, not harassed.
The ILO report brought tentative moves toward
reform but later city officials reverted to regarding
petty traders as dirty beggars who should be strictly
controlled . | en |
