Hawkers and vendors have been evicted from the streets of Nyabugogo in a clean-up exercise. Nyabugogo is one of Kigali’s low-class and busiest suburbs. Several kiosks in Nyabugogo Taxi Park have also been pulled down. The clean-up exercise follows the mayor’s recent visit to the area. However, shop owners, under Twunguke Cooperative Society, are frustrated by the move. The cooperative’s vice chairperson, Edrisa Sengoga, said that hawkers are their ‘first hand or middlemen customers’ who link them with passengers. He urged that some passengers don’t get enough time to get to their shops but the hawkers could at times direct or bring them. Meanwhile shops without dustbins were not allowed to operate from Tuesday. Telephone operators and the new vendors are all required to wear uniforms. Sengoga has also blamed ATRACO, the taxi operators’ authority, for carrying out the exercise without prior notice. Ends
