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{
    "id": 671842,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/671842/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 352,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "years, what has it done? The definition of SMEs did not stop them from looking into the interests of hawkers. In as much we would like to go beyond reasonable doubt and define those micro businesses to be under the purview of its Authority, we need to be careful to ensure the Authority is constituted in a way that will ensure it is sensitive to the needs of the people at the bottom. I spent some years in the financial services, especially in insurance. It got to a point where we were thinking that the top of the pyramid was saturated with products and providers. We wanted to go to Gikomba Market to sell insurance covers to hawkers. We wanted to sell life covers to fish mongers. We wanted to sell financial security products to people at the bottom of the pyramid. I still remember what one of my directors told us, that for you to go there, you must take off your tie, jacket and white shirt. You must have a paradigm shift. He told us the way we think when we are dealing with the corporate class or the middle class must change. It was a different way of thinking when we were dealing with people at the bottom of the pyramid. He told us that there are some institutions that had mastered how to deal with such cadre of people. Equity Bank did and they got it. You would go to a market like Gikomba and right in the middle of Gikomba, there would be an Equity Bank branch. That means the traders there did not have to carry cash home and get mugged along the way. They were able to mop up lots of money at the bottom of the pyramid. The reason I say this is that; as micro and small enterprises, we have got an Authority with a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with structures and an office, probably, somewhere in Kilimani, Upper Hill or some fancy building in the middle of the city. Are they wired to look after the interests of the hawker, fishmonger or the artisan at the bottom of the pyramid? If they are not, then, probably, structurally, they might want to come up with a directorate or a department that will focus wholly on the interests and the needs of the hawkers and the street-bound traders. Otherwise, we will have a situation where a CEO will go to deal with hawkers on the street. He will never understand what their needs are and we will never achieve some of the objectives set here. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we look at this, we must also find a way of looking at the by-laws of some of the counties. Hawkers are being clobbered every day in Nairobi and the Inspectorate Department keeps citing by-laws. Who writes those by- laws? Is there some oversight to ensure that those by-laws are consistent with the Constitution? Is there any part of laws that allow an official of Nairobi Inspectorate Department to clobber people and chase them up and down the street as if they are animals or criminals or lesser beings? The by-laws must also be subjected to some form of interrogation. If the by-laws are okay and it is the Inspectorate Department officials who are in the wrong, then the Inspectorate Department officials must also be subjected to some form of interrogation, so that we have a situation where the business people who sustain this economy are treated with dignity and decorum. They should not be treated as if they are rats or cockroaches or as if they are an embarrassment to this nation. There have been many arguments that have been advanced, that you cannot have a city full of hawkers. I do not think the hawkers of Nairobi have refused to sit down and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}