THE NEGLECTED VERANDAS

In the recent past we have witness fight between city askari,police and the hawkers in the capitals verandas.Some have fall prey of smelling nostrils cracking scent of teargas and ran all over,i too was not spared and that what directed me to the street and know the plight of the street vendors.
A preview about the market Muthurwa market was set up by the government in 2007 in a bid to provide hawkers in Nairobi with a more permanent selling space.The downside is that hawkers go where the market goes,and many buyer who give life to the street hawkers will not go to the market.The market has been branded the "monument of poor workmanship.The artitectual Association of Kenya said the market was poorly designed and many aspects overlooked

The complex has degenerated into a den of muggers where hawkers and matatu operators jostle for space

Most hawkers are afraid to speak  about their misery of being shot at while breaking city by-laws,police brutally leaves many city hawkers suffering in silence.Chilling details of police endanger the lives of Nairobi residents by shooting indiscriminately as they kick hawkers off the streets can be laid bare today.

Several hawkers have come out to display bullet wounds sustained during the shooting mostly during evening busy hours,when streets are jam packed as people walk to bus stop heading home.In May 2009,a stray bullet killed a civil servant and businessman was seriously injured as police confront hawkers in the heart of Nairobi.Deputy police spokesman Charles owino defended the use of arms saying hawkers use excessive force against police,however Kenya National Commission on Human Right(KNCHR)argues that while police are allowed to use firearms where there's a threat of life,the protests by hawkers don't fit in this category.
 The former chairman KNCHR Mr Omar and deputy spokesman Charles Owino said the public would soon have a credible forum to complain about police brutality once the Independent police oversight Authority is set up.

Stephen Waweru,the chairman of Central Business District Hawkers Association and also a hawker however maintain police are culpable claiming they are mistreated as some council askaris try to ward off competition for their wares,which are placed in strategic points.'Some asks have employed hawkers who sell their goods as certain streets without been touched.Why are they treating us like armed thugs yet we are just looking for daily bread?'Mr waweru said.He claims that due to involvement in the fight for the right of his members,some unknown people have threaten him with death and his case is being handled by the Release Political Prisoners Human Right Lobby Group.

Solution on this matter according to a new study is calling an the government to allocate space for the street vendors and stop treating them as outcasts.The study Negotiating"streets for all"in urban transport planning:The case for pedestrians,cyclists and streets vendors in Nairobi,Kenya,fault policy makers in Nairobi for neglecting these groups in policies.Neglecting of pedestrian,cyclists and street vendors in transport planning in different parts of the world reveals the persistence of inequality in the development and provision of trade and transport space that urgently needs to be examined and challenged as part of an effort to promote equality in urban and transport planning