Nakuru hawkers have received a reprieve after a Nakuru court halted their imminent eviction from the town centre.
Lady Justice Abigael Mshila directed the county government to put in writing a guarantee that no hawker will be evicted pending the hearing of the matter.
The judge set January 7 for the next hearing of the matter aimed at seeking a solution to the standoff that has now entered the new year.
The hawkers’ reprieve came as the deadline imposed on them and announced by Governor Kinuthia Mbugua expired at the eve of the new year when the licences they paid the county government for expired.
While appearing before Judge Mshila, lawyer Wilfred Konosi for the county government told the court that hawkers, who are not members of the Nakuru Street Traders and Hawkers Association and have encroached the Baringo street and the Pandit Nehru road branching from the main Kenyatta Avenue, will be evicted.
He said hawking must be regulated to allow other business operators along the streets to also enjoy their constitutional rights.
Lawyer Fred Nyagaka, representing the hawkers, however, dismissed claims that members of the association have encroached the streets.
The grovernor had directed all hawkers operating on pavements and in front of shops especially at the town CBD to quit by January 1.
In a no-nonsense speech made to commemorate Kenya's 51st Jamhuri Day, the governor said the affected hawkers will not be licensed in the new year unless they relocated.
The governor later opened the Wakulima Wholesale Market Complex which has been allocated to fresh produce market sellers and urged the hawkers to relocate to the new premises.
Following the amnesty on Wednesday, the more than 1,000 hawkers who had turned up in court to follow proceedings led by Nakuru town MP David Gikaria and chairman Simon Nasieku chanted celebratory slogans as they matched along Kenyatta Avenue in the town.
In the past months, stalls have also been demolished around Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium, Shabab area, Langa Langa, Free Area, Kiundu and Barnabas in the outskirts of the town in what the governor termed as restoring the image of the town.