Wetang’ula to address row on Chinese hawkers

Trade minister Moses Wetang’ula will on Tuesday issue a ministerial statement on Chinese hawkers in Nairobi. “I will be making a statement in Parliament on Tuesday. So I won’t talk about it now. It’s pending in Parliament. I’ll be pre-empting what I’ll be saying,” said Wetang’ula in Mombasa yesterday.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a retreat by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. Nairobi hawkers on Thursday held a demonstration against the Chinese whom they accused of taking over their businesses.

They sent a petition to the Trade ministry, Nairobi town clerk Roba Duba, the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Chinese Embassy. The hawkers want the Chinese hawkers, whom they accused of selling their goods, mostly textile and mobile phones, at throw away prices stopped from operating in the city's Central Business District.