Why nobody dares touch the cash and gold in Eastleigh

The place is Garissa Lodge of Eastleigh, Nairobi. A turning towards General Waruinge Street leads to a congested and probably one of the worst roads in the city.

Huge potholes, trenches dug out by heavy machinery dot the road, making it virtually impassable for small vehicles.

Since the early 1990s, the road has earned itself the name of “Jam Street”, probably after a programme aired by a local television station.

The name suits it due to traffic jams that typify the area after 5pm when it becomes an alternative route for matatus seeking shortcuts to and from the city centre. The TV series has long gone, but the name remains.

A few metres to the turning is Jam Fries, a fast-food eatery with a huge model of a Coca Cola bottle visible from the main road. On the opposite side is a huge, modern shopping mall, one of several that have now become the new face of Eastleigh.

But the real interest is the ramshackle complex behind it.

Ordinarily, it would appear out of place, as it is crying out for renovation and is not the cleanest of places, at least not on the outside.

The doors are open, but there is an unusual crowd at the main entrance. “You don’t enter here without being noticed,” says my guide who has lived in the area for many years.

Our requirements

And sure enough, we are barely a metre into the complex when a tall man walks up to us to inquire about our requirements. He is certainly not a trader and his objective seems to signal that we are being monitored.

I later learn that there are at least a dozen other men watching the gate and other points within the complex. It is clear they are part of an elaborate security arrangement at all the trading points here.

Inside, several bui bui-clad women sit on low stools in an open veranda, and each has a small basket, or a similar container, that appears to hold all their attention.

A closer look reveals gold jewellery — lots of it. The traders are uncharacteristically calm and do not seem worried about any threat or danger over their highly-priced commodity.

Not far away, a money changer is waving huge bundles of the Kenyan currency in Sh1,000 notes, which I estimate to be in hundreds of thousands. He is calling out for anybody buying or selling US dollars.

Welcome to Al Bushra, possibly one of the busiest points for jewellery trade and money changing. It is one of the many shopping malls in Eastleigh which, in barely two decades, has become Kenya’s busiest trading centre.