Nairobi governor Mike Sonko at a past charity event. He says that his government will bot use brutal means to evict hawkers from the Nairobi CBD. [PHOTO/Mike Sonko]
Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has said he will not use brutal force to evict hawkers from the CBD.
Sonko's words come after a public outcry lamenting on the influx of hawkers in the city centre.
Ever since Sonko took power from former governor Evans Kidero, the hawkers have been encroaching the streets in what pedestrians and motorists complain is causing trouble moving around town as well as insecurity.
However, Sonko has said that though he understands the need to have the streets cleared, they will use the constitution in doing so.
"There have been issues over street children and hawkers. My stand as Nairobi governor is that we shall remove them (children) and hawkers from the streets but by following the law," he said.
Sonko noted that the previous Nairobi regime had used a lot of brutality in countering the said groups, and that this led to serious injuries and sometimes deaths.
"In the last county government, hawkers were killed by being stabbed. We shall not kill, we shall use the constitution," he insisted.