City Hall’s County Executive office in charge of Trade, Industrialisation, Cooperative Development and Tourism Anna Othoro pointed out that overcrowding caused by hawkers is a major concern due to terror threats/FILE
City Hall’s County Executive office in charge of Trade, Industrialisation, Cooperative Development and Tourism Anna Othoro pointed out that overcrowding caused by hawkers is a major concern due to terror threats.
“The hawkers actually have a place to go. There is a lot of space in Muthurwa that they are supposed to be in but they leave it and come to the streets. Part of the problem is you and I as the citizens because we buy from the streets. We need to encourage our hawkers to remain where they are and then we go to them and that will make it easy even in terms of movement,” she stated.
She further emphasised the need for them to cooperate with the county government and stated that more space will be created for their operations.
“One of the things that we are going to do is to create proper spaces for them to operate in but they need to cooperate with us. Right now they are not cooperating and at the end of the day, we have said it once, we have said it twice we are not going to say it a third time,” she said.
City Inspectorate authorities and the police have stepped up security in the city to curb terror incidents which mainly target congested areas.
Othoro was speaking during a meeting with tourism stakeholders where she emphasised the need for Kenyans to change their attitude towards Nairobi and view it as a potential tourist destination.
She stated that many people dismissed the wide array of attractions in the city and this reduces the flow of revenue.
She stressed the need for all Kenyans to take some time and appreciate the various aspects of the city which include monuments, roads, national parks and the diverse culture.
“We start off at the old PCs office which is now the Nairobi Gallery, you come down Moi Avenue, there is a route that takes you down Koinange Street and you end up just off near the National Theatre and the Norfolk,” she pointed out while outlining the diverse attractions in the city.
“There is another route that takes you down Kenyatta Avenue, then Moi Avenue before you end off at the Railway Museum and that route also takes you to the KICC,” she said.
She also indicated that the county authority has embarked on a sensitization exercise which will involve both walking and driving tours within the city.
“In terms of driving tours, we want to take people from Uhuru Park, down the highway into the Karen area. If you look at the National Park many of us as Kenyans are not going there. The conversation we are going to have with the KWS is about the park fees and seeing how we can get more Kenyans to visit in the park. The only animal which is not there is only the elephant,” she said.
“In any industry, everybody thinks that something can happen overnight. We have to work towards the one to three or five year plan that we have in the Vision 2030 and within the next few years, we should see a change.”
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