Traders at the Dagoretti Market in Nairobi on Monday halted operations and took to the streets to demonstrate the infiltration of drug dealers causing an uptick in insecurity in the area.
While burning bonfires on the roads of the busy market, the business owners called for the legal intervention of the government to drive the peddlers out of the streets.
They relayed how this infiltration had led the police officers to drag their feet when intervening in violent or criminal activity, presuming everyone involved was a drug dealer or addict.
One of the criminal activities they pointed out was thieves scouring the market armed with machetes in search of dealers to rob them, an activity that put legitimate vendors in danger.
"The police officers should be replaced. They only arrest the drunkards while thugs walk around freely with pangas. We cannot even go to work because of these people," one trader lamented.
Apart from the rising insecurity, the traders also complained about the high number of young people who had turned to drugs because of their availability at a nearby field.
"We went all the drugs gone. There is a field near here where the young people go to take drugs. We want the government to intervene and stop this," another trader stated.
"There are so many children who have turned to drugs because of this field here. We want it gone," another added.
According to the traders, the addicts did not have jobs or anything to do during the day so they came out at night to rob the traders of their hard-earned money and wares.
This disruption comes just two days after matatu operators in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) ceased operations and blocked major streets in the city protesting the infiltration of hawkers in their parking spaces.
The strike was the second in two weeks as a similar standoff was experienced in CBD on Thursday, January 30.
The infiltration was caused by Governor Johnson Sakaja's plan to decongest Nairobi which included banning the hawkers from operating on several major streets including; Moi Avenue, Haile Selassie Avenue, Kenneth Matiba Road, Latema Road, Ronald Ngala Street, Mfangano Street, Hakati Road, and River Road as off-limits to hawkers.
