Mitullah, Winnie

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University of Nairobi 
POLICY BRIEFS 
FROM RESEARCH TO ACTION 
A Case Study of the Kenya National Alliance 
of Street Vendors and Informal Traders 
(KENASVIT)1 L j r l A R Y 
0 2 APR 2009 
I N S T I T U T E O F 
DEVELCp><?r 'T STUDIES 
by 
Dr. Winnie Mitullah* 
Introduction 
Planning and managing street and informal trade 
within urban areas remains one of the major 
challenges facing urban governors and cities around 
the globe. Most approaches aimed at dealing with 
the challenge have struggled to keep traders out of 
the Central Business District (CBD) without much 
success. Research conducted by the Institute for 
Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi 
reveals that most policy responses are done without 
any consultation with the traders, largely due to the 
lack of organizational capacity among traders. It is 
this finding that pushed IDS to go beyond research 
and begin facilitating the organization of street and 
informal traders in Kenya. 
This policy brief highlight a case study that 
demonstrates the contribution of repackaged 
research outputs in building local and international 
partnerships aimed at improving the organization of 
street and informal traders in Kenya. This policy 
brief shares the experience of KENASVIT, an 
umbrella organization of street and informal traders 
with a vision of transforming street vending and 
informal businesses into corporate establishments. 
The brief aims at sensitizing policy makers, in 
particular urban governors and other primary 
stakeholders to support (he organization of those 
operating within the informal economy. 
The Issues 
The issue of who should trade within the CBD has 
been contentious in most cities of the world. On one 
hand, formal traders and those who take an exclusive 
approach believe that street traders are denying the 
formal traders who pay substantial taxes on their 
business. On the other hand, street traders and those 
who believe in inclusive approach contend that the 
street traders deserve to be allocated space within 
the CBD, just like formal traders. This not 
withstanding, the debate on who should conduct 
business within the CBD should not be reduced to 
those who are pro- and and-, but rather should take 
a rights perspective. If all citizens have a right to trade 
within the CBD, the issue to deal with is how best to 
allocate and manage the available spaces effectively. 
The informal economy, in particular trade, provides 
livelihoods to over sixty per cent of the urban 
population in most African countries. While the sector 
has been acknowledged as an important part of the 
economy, most countries have failed to address the 
IDS PB Issue 5 No. 1 December 2006 
issues facing those operating within the sector. In 
Kenya, the history of the sector is full of running 
battles between the informal economy traders and 
urban authorities over recognition. Despite decades 
of discord, the informal urban traders have lacked a 
collective voice in dealing with authorities, until the 
establishment of the Kenya National Alliance of 
Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENAS VIT). 
The informal economy in Kenya started getting 
recognition in 1972 when the International Labour 
Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Institute 
for Development studies (IDS) of the University of 
Nairobi produced a report on Employment, Incomes 
and Equality in Kenya (ILO, 1972). In spite of its 
recognition, the sector did not get organized until 
1992, when the Kenya National Federation of Jua 
Kali Associations (KNFA) was formed, with the 
support of the government. Members of this 
association were largely small-scale manufacturers. 
KNFA left out the street and informal traders. The 
latter have been struggling to find their space in 
socio-economic and political development of Kenya, 
and the birth of KFNAS VIT provides hope for the 
sub-sector. 
Birth of KENAS VIT 
The KENASVIT is an umbrella alliance of seven 
core urban alliances in Kenya, namely: Nairobi, 
Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Machakos 
and Migori. The Alliance has over 3,000 members 
drawn from 140 local associations that form the seven 
urban alliances. The vision of KENASVIT is to 
transform street vending and informal businesses into 
corporate establishments. The mission is to organise 
and empower street vendors and informal traders, 
in order to improve their businesses through training, 
access to credit, dialogue with local authorities and 
other relevant organizations on appropriate by-laws 
and policies that give recognition to, and bring to an 
end harassment and discrimination against these 
traders. 
IDS PB Issue 5 No. 1 
IDS Research 
KENASVIT is a product of a research carried out 
by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) of 
the University of Nairobi between 1999 and 2000. 
The research titled 'Women Street Vendors in 
Kenya' was co-funded by the Canadian International 
Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the 
British Department for International Development 
(DflD). The research examined the following issues: 
policies and regulations, site of street vendors 
operations, licensing and daily fees, enforcement of 
policies and regulations, communication between 
vendors and other stakeholders and organizational 
capacity of street vendors. 
During the conceptualization of the project, the 
research team liaised with individuals within IDRC 
and DflD, who were keen on addressing issues 
relating to the informal economy, in particular street 
trade. In addition, the research team linked up with 
the founder members of a global network, Women 
in Employment Globalising and Organising 
(WIEGO), which was then at an infancy stage. These 
founder members of WIEGO emphasized the need 
to conceptualize the research in a manner that 
ensures that research findings are useful not only to 
researchers but also to street and informal traders, 
planners and policy makers. 
In order to realize its goal, the research adopted a 
participatory research methodology, which gathered, 
not only information from the traders but also 
provided them an opportunity through Focus Group 
Discussions to raise some of the challenges facing 
them. During the dissemination of research findings 
and recommendations forums bringing together the 
street traders, local authorities, government 
departments and other stakeholders were organized 
at the local and, national levels. 
The sharing of the findings of the research with 
primary stakeholders triggered the need to address 
the organizational capacity of street vendors. This 
proved to be a fundamental problem influencing all 
other research issues affecting the vendors. This 
finding provided the justification for IDS to move 
December 2006 
b e y o n d the r e sea rch by p r o p o s i n g the 
implementation of a project focusing on 'Facilitation 
of Street Vendors and In fo rma l T rade r s 
Organisations in Kenya'. This project nurtured all 
the activities that eventually resulted in the 
establishment of the KENASVIT which was officially 
launched in Kenya on the 18,h of March, 2006. 
Networking and Partnerships 
One of the outputs of research was a street vendors' 
handbook written in popular language and illustrated 
with cartons. Further, the IDS continued providing 
technical support, writing a proposal, fund raising 
and marketing the idea of facilitating the street 
vendors and informal traders' organizations to 
various local, regional and international organizations. 
StreetNet International, an international organization 
that supports street and informal traders globally, 
was the first organization to support the project. The 
Coordinator of the organization attended the national 
research findings dissemination workshop in 2000. 
The workshop was attended by Senior Government 
officials, including the Permanent Secretary, Ministry 
of Labour and Human Resource Development, a 
ministry responsible for the sub-sector; and local 
authority civic leaders and senior officials. 
A second national workshop was held in 2003 and 
was opened by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry 
of Labour and Human Resource Development. 
During the workshop, the street vendors and informal 
traders operating in seven major urban authorities 
who attended the workshop with the facilitation of 
IDS extended the workshop to midnight discussing 
the technicalities of forming a national alliance of street 
vendors and informal traders. Each of the 
represented urban authorities had a break out session 
in which, each group elected two representatives, a 
women and a man to constitute a National Interim 
Steering Committee for developing a constitution for 
the proposed KENASVIT. 
KENASVIT Activities 
Since inception, KENASVIT members have 
engaged in lobbying and policy influence and have 
so far provided inputs to the National Land Policy. 
They have also influenced the preparat ion of a motion 
on street vending in Kenya which went through the 
first reading in Parl iament in August 2005. 
KENASVIT will organize a National Conference 
to discuss the hawkers' bill and will circulate the hill 
to hawkers associations across the countiy. Through 
these two inputs, KENASVIT has managed to infuse 
the voice of street vendors and informal traders into 
national policy process. 
Apart from the national level activities, at the local 
level, KENASVIT members have began negotiating 
with urban authorities on issues of trading space, 
including approaching some local authorities for 
allocation of land for construction of offices. So far 
Mombasa Urban Alliance has received a cargo 
container from the Provincial Commissioner, which 
they intend to convert into an o f f i ce . The 
KENASVIT national office located in Nakuru, the 
fourth largest urban centre in Kenya, has begun 
serving as a contact point fo r t raders and 
development partners. The alliance with the support 
of the IDS has produced a brochure, and the first 
issue of their newsletter, The Trader. Other planned 
activities include: urban alliance meetings, office 
capacity building, including National Executive 
Commit tee (NEC) meetings. The NEC has 
undergone an induction seminar, and the same is 
planned for the member urban alliances. 
At local level, street vendors and informal traders 
associations affiliated to KENASVIT are engaging 
in dialogue and negotiation with respective councils. 
This engagement has mixed results. For example, in 
Kisumu City, the third largest urban centre in Kenya, 
the vendors and informal traders have taken the 
Council to court, while in other urban centers such 
as Mombasa City Council, Machakos and Migori 
Municipal Councils, the relationship remains 
amicable. 
IDS PB Issue 5 No. 1 December 2006 
Funding and Support Agencies 
In 2(X)4, the StreetNet International leveraged a total 
of US$ 10,500 seed fund from FNV for IDS for 
facilitating and monitoring street vendors and 
informal traders associations in organizing and 
dialogue with local authorities and other stakeholders; 
National Interim Steering Committee Meetings for 
developing the constitution; National Delegates 
Meeting to endorse the Constitution and elect office 
bearers; and partly supported the official launch of 
KENASVIT. The Unitarian Universalist Service 
Committee (UUSC), a human rights and social 
justice international organization based in Cambridge, 
MA, USA joined the effort and provided a total of 
US$ 26,800 in June 2005. Since then, UUSC has 
worked with IDS in supporting this effort, and in 
March 2006, provided additional US$ 68,900 for 
supporting the organization for the 2006/7 year. 
IDS Policy Briefs 
IDS Policy Briefs is a monthly publication of the Institute for Develop-
ment Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi. The objective of the IDS 
Policy Briefs is to disseminate key outputs of IDS research findings. 
The IDS Policy Briefs is aimed at informing and influencing policy 
formulation processes, serving policy consumers and development 
practitioners. 
Edited by Kibisu-Kabatesi 
Institute for Development Studies 
The Institute for Development Studies (IDS) is one of the oldest and 
best-established research institutes in Africa. The IDS is a multipurpose 
and multi-disciplinary research institute focusing on social and economic 
issues ol development in Kenya and the rest of Africa. It undertakes 
research and training in collaboration with other social sciences 
organisations, provides a facility that enhances intellectual stimuli 
between local and visiting scholars, and offers professional consultancy 
services to various government, regional and international development 
agencies, voluntary bodies and the general public in Kenya. Since its 
inception in 1965, IDS has carried out research on issues of 
development concern to Kenya, Africa, and the rest of the world. Its 
research findings have informed government policy, fed academic 
discourse, and enlightened students for more than a generation. 
Inqu i r ies 
Inquiries should be 
addressed to: 
The Institute for 
Development Studies 
University of Nairobi 
P.O. Box 30197 
Nairobi, Kenya 
IDS PB Issue 5 No. 1 
Challenges 
The major challenge facing the KENASVIT is 
consolidation of the gains made. Like many other 
new associations, the young alliance faces the 
challenge of leadership, conflict resolution, and 
raising required resources for effective discharge of 
functions. The IDS has been able to facilitate the 
alliance to go beyond being mere research subjects. 
However, facilitation is not the core business of IDS. 
The core business of IDS is the generation and 
development of knowledge, promoting debate and 
encouraging utilization of research findings in post 
graduate teaching and training, and in shaping the 
growth of development thinking, theory and practice. 
During the official launch of KENASVIT in March, 
2006 attended by many stakeholders, the IDS made 
special appeal to stakeholders present, in particular 
government departments and local authorities to 
provide the support required by the street vendors 
and informal traders. The IDS observed that issues 
affecting street vendors and informal traders such 
as site of operation, policies and regulations, and 
organizing must be mainstreamed and not handled 
in an ad hoc manner. The IDS further assured the 
development partners, including civil society 
organizations that supporting street vendors and 
informal traders is a key step towards achieving the 
Millennium Development Goal on poverty 
eradication. Further, effective street vendors and 
informal traders associations have the potential of 
turning the millions of micro enterprises operating 
across Africa into viable corporate businesses as 
stated in the vision of KENASVIT. 
(Footnotes) 
1 This case study was shared at the World Urban Forum 
in Vancouver. Canada as an example of repackaging 
research product for policy intervention. 
*Dr. Winnie Mitullah is a Senior Research Fellow at the 
Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of 
Nairobi. 
December 2006 
Tel: 254-020-247968 
Mobile: 0733 524903 or 0722 499706 
Fax: 254-020-222036 
E-Mail: idsdirector@swiftkenya.com 
URL: www.uonbi.ac.ke faculties ids 


From research to action: a case study of the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT)

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From research to action: a case study of the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT)

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