Peddlers of Nairobi

The slums of African cities are not only landfills, poverty and violence, but also a special economy. Street vendors roaming the Kenyan capital from door to door know exactly what customers need.

Street salesman in the African world is one of the most common professions. These people are used to taking care of themselves and have adapted to survive in the most extreme situations. Slums are not the only places of extreme survival: a closer look at them shows that they are nodes of a self-generated, ever-expanding economy. The seller and his product are "indicators" of consumption, needs and even the whims of the community.

(19 photos in total)

1. Daniel Ndunju successfully sells soft toys. He has already earned a motorcycle and now uses it as a shop on wheels.

2. Erastus Kamau Vashini is a proud father of three children and a well—known gospel singer in the slums. And also a walking store selling its own discs. Potential buyers will learn about its approach from afar.

3. 25-year-old Masai Lessiamon supplies local residents with medicines, mainly traditional medicine. He carries a canister of antimalarial syrup with him, selling it for 30 shillings per glass.

4. Muraje Tionga is the oldest street vendor. The wooden spoons, brooms and wicker baskets with which he wanders through the slums are made by his children. He has thirteen of them.

5. 24-year-old William Tega sells a 10-minute camel ride for 10 shillings per trip. He is not the owner of the animal, and therefore gives 300 shillings every day to the owner of the camel, while his daily income is about 500 shillings.

6. George Nyong'o sells lampshades for table lamps at 500 Kenyan shillings (190 rubles) apiece. He gives half of the proceeds to his Indian dealers, but his net daily earnings still average 1,000 shillings, which is quite a lot by local standards.

7. David and Mike, 18 and 19 years old, sell used sneakers. Their earnings are about 3,000 shillings a day.

8. 21-year-old Johnston Mutunga makes 200 shillings a day on the sale of pesticides. He believes that his "mouse" hat is a good advertisement for buyers.

9. 26-year-old John Wambuyo sells pieces of watermelon and earns 10 shillings per piece.

10. Mr. Jack's services are in demand by the residents of Huruma (Matare district, the so-called Nairobi slum). He is a shoe cleaner: he charges 150 shillings for cleaning one pair.

11. Peter Omondi and Jair Kimani, 32 and 27 years old. They are street artisans who repair damaged plastic pipes by melting them with red-hot iron. They walk through the slums with a metal tank in which there is constantly hot carbon and a soldering iron.

12. Peter Boniface, sitting on his Cocoteni cart, sells water cans for 20 shillings apiece. Trading in the slums of Matare on Eastleith Square, Kariobiji in east Nairobi, he earns 360 shillings per cart.

13. 18-year-old David Oteino earns 400 shillings collecting plastic bottles in Korogocho, Dandora, Mathare slum.

14. Ben sells SIM cards to a Kenyan-English telephone company for 100 shillings apiece.

15. 22-year-old student Peter Abok sells pots. He earns from 250-400 shillings, while half of the money goes to an Indian wholesaler.

16. 29-year-old Josh Nyaga sells brooms in the slums of Mathare. His earnings are 400 shillings a day. He has three children.

17. Jimmy Kariuki sells hats from a bicycle in the slums of Mathare.

18. 17-year-old Bernard Rango performs a "puppet theater" in front of primary school students in the slum area of Mathare. For the performance, he asks for a few coins from each child.

19. 41-year-old Dan Oko weighs everyone on his old scales for 10 shillings, and also sells used clothes hangers and headphones, probably found in the landfills of Dandor.