For the last 20 years, Elizabeth Mwangi has eked out a living hawking in the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
During this time, the shoe peddler encountered many challenges — including daylight robberies, harassment by municipal and police officials, sudden eviction, non- recognition of their business by the government, an unsanitary environment.
However, a new challenge that cropped up immediately after the election of Governor Johnson Sakaja is currently proving to be her biggest nightmare: Fake county inspectorate officers, well known as Kanjos.
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Unlike the law enforcers deployed by City Hall, the imposters, who mainly operate in plainclothes and without any form of identification, arrest hawkers and other small-scale traders in the streets to extort them.
Last week, Julius Nzioki was selling his commodities on Latema Road when two men, who claimed to be inspectors approached him, handcuffed his right hand before embarking on an endless trek around the streets.
All this while, Nzioki said, the ‘officers’ kept asking him, “how much can you pay for your freedom”?
“They were imposters. They arrested me while hawking clothes by the roadside only to take me around for about an hour before releasing me,” he said.
Unlike Nzioki, Mwangi’s long service has helped her beat the imposters at their own game.
“We know them. They can’t dare touch my commodities because I know them all, both the genuine officers and the imposters. I have seen the imposters harassing my colleagues who are new in town,” she said.
The fake cops can be found all over the city as they target the more than 6,000 hawkers who have registered with City Hall and thousands more who trade without licences and registration.
But the sweet spots for the imposters are OTC area, Riverside, Central Bus Station (BS), Khoja Roundabout, Fire Station Area, River Road stretch all the way to junction, Latema, Tom Mboya area as well as around Embasava bus terminus.
According to the hawkers, cells of imposters started emerging across the capital when the reign of Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), led by Director-General Mohamed Badi, came to an end with the election of Mr Sakaja in August 2022.
Following the dissolution of NMS in 2022, the contracts of some 700 inspectorate officers were terminated when the Nairobi County Assembly opposed their absorption into Sakaja’administration, saying they needed to apply for jobs afresh through the County Public Service Board.
Sources at City Hall told the Nation that some of the affected officers found it hard to accept that their jobs had been terminated and chose to operate illegally, with many refusing to return their tools of trade— including handcuffs, boots and uniforms.
According to Starehe Hawkers Association Chairperson John Wamawaya, such imposters are well known by the county government, and are working in cahoots with those who are in office.
Nairobi City County officials hang around a pickup belonging to their County Enforcement Department outside the fire station along Tom Mboya Street.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The fake officers, he said, are under instructions to arrest suspected errand hawkers and demand bribes, which if granted, are shared with city inspectorate chiefs.
If the arrested hawkers decline to part with bribes, the imposters inform their masters at City Hall, who in turn deploy genuine kanjos to arrest and book the defiant traders.
Wamawaya narrates that the imposters are in possession of handcuffs, which they use to threaten their targets.
“These are goons who are come claiming that they have been send by the governor. We know them very well. They mostly arrest the traders who are still new in the streets, including foreigners,” Wamawaya said.
Almost one year after Sakaja issued a directive that inspectorate officers must be in uniforms, many can be seen in the streets battling hawkers while in plain clothes, causing confusion as some of traders cannot differentiate them from criminals.
“When you see a kanjo wearing a mask, that is a goon. They don’t want to be seen. Some of them have uniforms, which they did not return to the county upon the expiry of their contracts with NMS,” Wamaya said.
Short-term employment at City Hall has also been blamed for increasing cases of imposters in CBD, where inspectorate officers end up being jobless after serving for two years.
“Where do you expect someone who was working as an inspectorate officer to go after ending his contract? They will come back to the streets to continue operating illegally. We want governor Sakaja to ensure that they are permanently employed.”
Activist Peter Njoroge, who has been in Nairobi streets for many years, said the imposters had confidence in whatever they were doing, despite being illegal operation.
Njoroge narrated how he receives distress calls from some of the hawkers but whenever they report such cases to City Hall nothing is done.
“These rogue ones can be easily identified by the county government. We know the people who we suspect were fired and whenever I see them around, I go to City Hall to enquire why they are allowed to operate,” Njoroge told the Nation.
Those who fall into the traps of the criminals end up paying hefty bribes after being taken around and threatened to be arraigned for noncompliance.
“They ask you to pay Sh500 or harass you with threats that they will take you to the next level but in real sense they have nowhere to take you,” he said.
“In most cases, they have handcuffs with which they threaten traders. For motorbike, they ask for Sh1,000 and threaten you that if they confiscate your motorbike, you will have to pay Sh5,000, so someone will just prefer paying Sh1,000.”
In some instances, Njoroge said that some female traders had been asked to go to bed with imposters to be allowed to operate in some strategic zones.
“What we can question is if the governor was doing a PR statement (when he vowed to clean up the inspectorate). We don’t see it being enforced because we see a lot of them who were dismissed, they are on the loose and that is known.”
Reached for a comment, Nairobi County Chief Officer in charge of Security and Compliance Tony Kimani admitted that the county has been struggling to clean up the inspectorate but the effort is being sabotaged by rogue officers in the department, who collude with the imposters.
“Some of these people are impersonating what they are not. Some of them have not and have never been in these positions, while some have been in this organisation, either they went on retire, either they were sacked but because they understand the sector, they have refused to become good citizens,” Kimani said.
“We have a department of Information and Investigation Analysis within the county government. I have told them to launch a manhunt because some of them (imposters) are known by description. We are taking it seriously because it is a criminal offence.”
To enhance identification, the chief officer said that the county was planning to issue an identification card that has a barcode that bears information of the legitimate county officers.
“When you scan it, it will be able to give you the name, the department, the ID number, and the PF number. With that, it will be easier to smoke somebody out when they purport to be a county officer and is acting on behalf of the county government.”
On calls to have all officers in uniform, Kimani said it would not be possible, since some of them are detectives who go undercover to arrest notorious noncompliant traders.
