Why nobody dares touch the cash and gold in Eastleigh

“We are the biggest business in eastern and central Africa,” says Mr Abdalla Mohammad, the vice-chairman of the Eastleigh Business Community.

He estimates there are hundreds of people from all over Kenya doing business in Eastleigh. Most of them are Kenyans of Somali origin, but refugees from the war-weary Horn of Africa country have joined in.

There are also Ethiopians and others from the Kenyan communities who look to the bustling residential area for survival.

A casual observation shows that the activities are chaotic, although, somehow, there is some order that is understood by only the insiders.

In the main street, there are thousands of hawkers selling a variety of wares, including wheelbarrows.

There are also makeshift stalls, most of them encroaching upon the road, but everyone has their designated space, that is duly recognised. In this hyper-busy location hawkers and vehicles compete for space, but hardly are there any accidents.

Asked how they avoid accidents, hawker John Karanja echoes a general phrase saying: “The jewellery mind us and everybody does their businesses.”

Eastleigh was initially dominated by small-time retailers selling clothing and electronic goods, but the rise in small trading in Kenya through what are commonly known as exhibitions and street hawking has created a new boom for wholesale business, attracting traders from Nairobi and surrounding areas.

Ordinarily, the combination of big money and the congestion would seem to be a recipe for crime, but in a striking paradox, the business area is relatively safe.

“There is a heavy police presence in the business area, but I think there is a bigger, invisible security arrangement that is assembled internally and which must be a real deterrent to robberies,” says Mr Eric Kiraithe, the police spokesman.

He adds that the ease with which traders handle cash shows their confidence in the security arrangement, or they would be more discreet.

“The trading in Eastleigh is largely driven by customers from outside the area, and they would not go there if they felt unsafe. People doing business there know that good reputation is what keeps them in business, otherwise the place would die.”

But does this not mean that everything is honest to goodness and above board? Mr Kiraithe believes that some of the activities could be illegal, although it is fairly difficult to prove this owing to the close-knit alliance among the traders.

Says he: “I have heard claims of gun running here, but there is no tangible evidence. But, for sure, some smuggling could be taking place here — even money laundering. But people here keep their secrets and one can only guess what really goes on.”

What is obvious, however, is that business is booming and the turnover could be in hundreds of millions of shillings a day.