One major characteristic of Nairobi’s streets is the heaps and heaps of clothes beside the streets with sellers calling out for customers to buy.
From city slums’ paths to CBD avenues, hardly can you walk a few meters without encountering a second-hand clothes seller.
They range from undergarments such as panties and bras to shirts, trousers, dresses, tops, socks, coats, and jackets.
While most of these clothes are imported from the west, some are not.
Some even do not qualify to be called second hand; they are third hand, fourth hand and more. Some sources of these clothes are just shocking! Consider these:
Mortuaries
Clothes taken off bodies in the morgues are usually thrown away especially when they are bloodied. Some of these clothes are washed, perfumed and taken to the streets for sale. A few months ago an article appeared a local daily featuring a second-hand clothes seller confessing possessing and selling clothes from the dead.
Rubbish bins
The middle class in Nairobi usually throw away clothes which they no longer needed as garbage. Most of these clothes end up being picked and used by the street families but some make it to the second-hand clothes market.
Cloth lines
If you have lived in Nairobi long enough, chances are that there’s a time you spread your clothes out to dry and they disappeared. There are petty thieves in Nairobi who specialize in getting clothes from clothes’ lines for reselling. You might be shocked one day to encounter some of the clothes you remember losing some time ago being offered for you to buy in the streets.
Robberies
Nairobi robbers are known to sweep a house clean once the gain access. They ransack the house and cart away as much as they can including clothes. The clothes are later sorted and taken to the streets for sale. There are other instances where people are attacked and ordered to take off all their clothes! These end up in the streets too.
Next time you feel like buying second-hand clothes, make sure you buy from a dealer whose source of merchandise you have no doubts. Remember to look for any stains on the clothes as it can help you avoid clothes from questionable sources!