Why nobody dares touch the cash and gold in Eastleigh

The bustling First Avenue Eastleigh which is famous for its many shopping malls. Photo/JENNIFER MUIRURI

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.

“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.

The evidence is the interest the area is attracting from major banks, airlines, courier companies as well as clearing and forwarding companies, which have opened branches here. Property prices have sky-rocked and, currently, are among the highest in Nairobi.

On average, a front-row plot on the main road — around Garissa Lodge — goes for no less than Sh50 million. Further inside, it is Sh20 million.

“Comparatively, a similar size of commercial plot at the city’s Upper Hill area goes for about Sh30 million or Sh8 million in the Ngara area,” says the manager of a property company.

Unlike in most other commercial centres where building buyers retain them, those in Eastleigh demolish them and put up shopping malls.

“There is certainly big money rushing to that area, much of it from the Somali community,” says Mr Tom Odongo, the director of city planning.

Land owners are not the only people cashing in on the rush for business here. In the recent past, hawkers have joined in and are selling their allotted space to gullible traders from northern Kenya.

A wheelbarrow

Some of them are said to pay up to Sh50,000 for space big enough only for a wheelbarrow.

“Such transactions are illegal and void because the space being sold is part of the road, sometimes right on the tarmac, but those buying do not seem to mind,” says area chief John Chege Irungu.

This has prompted the city council to classify the area as a commercial zone, and the ongoing planning and rehabilitation will look at it as a business, rather than residential, area,” says Mr Odongo.

He adds that this puts the area in the same category as upmarket Westlands.

“There are still some residential plots in the area, but all are under extreme pressure to transform into business premises, and I’m sure they will eventually relent.”

The official adds that the council is already drawing up a rehabilitation plan for the area, that will ease the traffic congestion and offer easy pedestrian movement.

“This will offer convenience for shopping and other activities and harness the general business atmosphere,’’ he adds.

But Eastleigh has other headaches to contend with, and nobody knows this better than Chief Irungu, who has to occasionally turn to kadhis for help, especially on matters to do with customs and traditions. Among the common issues are marital.