You want to buy from street vendors? Arrest, fines await

The City of Kigali will no longer only target street vendors but also arrest and punish their clients, a move authorities say is intended to contribute effectively to curbing illegal businesses in the city. This was announced, yesterday, with the City seeking full enforcement of the City Council bylaw of May 2015 on illegal businesses and management of free markets. The punishments include charging Rwf10,000 for both a vendor and buyer implicated in street vending. The directive comes into force on Wednesday next week, according to the City. The City said this is part of wider efforts to encourage business development, hygiene and security. Addressing a news conference, Patricia Muhongerwa, the City vice mayor for social affairs, said, “We want street vendors to work under cooperatives and take advantage of various city interventions. By so doing, they will grow their businesses and be able to pay taxes to benefit the country’s economy.” Muhongerwa said street vending encourages unfair competition for customers with legitimate businesses paying rent and taxes. With the new bylaw, she said, “We hope that vendors will feel discouraged to go back to streets after failing to get customers. We believe targeting both a vendor and a buyer will be more effective unlike previously when we only focused on one side – the hawker.” Interventions The City said it has spent the last three years supporting and mobilising street vendors to work in designated markets and selling points. There were more than 6,000 identified street vendors then, according to Muhongerwa. In the last three years, over 6,000 street vendors have been resettled in different markets constructed within the city suburbs, but the majority of them are back on the street, the City said. This is despite incentives put in place, such as rental subsidies and tax waivers for over a year, authorities said. Some vendors claimed that although they were offered markets to work from, they did not get customers. Muhongerwa said businesses have grown for vendors who accepted to relocate to markets, adding that by implementing the bylaw, former street vendors will not get buyers, effectively driving them away from the street. The City of Kigali, Muhongerwa said, will cooperate with security organs to ensure smooth implementation of the law. Esther Nyiratuze, a street vendor from Gasabo District, told The New Times that she earns Rwf1,000 per day from street vending. The mother of two has been selling fruits for over five years with a capital of about Rwf20,000. She said the City’s directive should consider hawkers without enough capital to run profitable projects. “If I get Rwf100,000 or so, I can be able to engage in a lucrative business and work from the market,” she said. The bylaw stipulates that offenders will be taken to the nearest sector offices where they will pay a fine of Rwf10,000 and the goods being transacted confiscated. Meanwhile, the City said before the the bylaw is enforced, it will meet the management of moble telecommunication companies operating in the country (MTN, Tigo and Airtel) to ensure that they organise their businesses because there are agents who retail SIM cards on streets. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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You want to buy from street vendors? Arrest, fines await