on Toshareproject.it - curated by Bruce Sterling
*From a repressed gray-market toward something like a Maker scene.
https://macleki.org/stories/jua-kali-in-kisumu/
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Like government officials, scholars began referring to “jua kali” using positive terms such as the “self-employed entrepreneurs,” “the jua kali industry,” “the informal business sector,” and the like. The self-employed “jua kali” entrepreneurs were now seen as hard-working men and women engaged in meaningful occupations, selling either a specific product or a specific skill in exchange for money in order to survive in a very tough economic environment. In a book titled Jua Kali Kenya, Kenneth King examines the evolution of the jua kali informal sector and observes how, “traditionally it had either been neglected or even actively harassed by the national government or the municipal authorities” (King, xiii). King then looks at meetings and conferences on the “jua kali” sector organized by the Kenyan government and how those meetings and conferences gradually led to the governmental acceptance of the “jua kali” sector (King, 11). In 1971, for example, a meeting organized by “The Comprehensive Employment Strategy Mission” in Kenya helped to dramatize the concept and nature of the informal sector” (King, 6). After that meeting, people began to push for the recognition of the jua kali sector recognized and that its struggles should be taken seriously by the government.
While not everybody recognized the jua kali industry as part of the formal sector, nearly all understood that it was an outlet for those wishing to make money while “doing something they love.” The acceptance and recognition of the “jua kali” sector by the government was important in its evolution because, according to King, it enabled the jua kali sector get support and financial aid from the government that could help boost business. By the 1990s, the jua kali sector had become fully embraced by many people in the society. The jua kali workers were described as fearless, valiant, proud, and skillful. Activists and scholars carefully identified and chronicled the workers’ experiences: the traders and hawkers; the mechanics, spare-parts dealers, metal-beaters, craftsmen, service-repairmen, and artists. Each one was said to have a “different set of skills” and “each was trying to make a living doing something [he/she] enjoyed.” Sociologist Margaretta Swigert-Gacheru views “jua kali ingenuity as the way artists, living on a shoestring, use their imagination to create works of art that display their originality, adaptability, resourcefulness and improvisational style of ‘makeshift creativity’” (Swigert-Gacheru, 129).
Many residents of Kisumu engage in or know someone engaged in the jua kali business. Through jua kali, these people earn a living, pay for basic needs, make ends meet, take their children to school, and even thrive. There are personal stories of men and women in the jua kali sector in Kisumu who have educated their children to college level and their children have gone on to be successful in life as a result.
The Kisumu County government has begun emphasizing on the importance of the jua kali sector to the Kisumu economy. Recently, as reported in Kisumu News, Rose Nyamungu, the “Kisumu Women’s Representative to the Kisumu County Assembly began a series of consultative meetings with stakeholders “on the Economic Development projects” that were aimed at empowering the Kisumu County residents economically” (Kisumu News, October 13, 2015).
What makes these meetings so significant is that Rose Nyamungu even sought out and met with “leaders from the informal sector … and … jua kali leaders to iron out the issue of how these sectors could be improved through capitalization.” In other words, the Kisumu County government, in general, and Rose Nyamungu, in particular, are demonstrating how important the jua kali informal sector is by including it in the discussions of economic development of Kisumu. This is not just a demonstration of the recognition of the jua kali business, but also a deliberate attempt by the Kisumu County government to include the jua kali sector in its economic plans.
Yet, in spite of this recognition, the jua kali sector continues to face challenges. One of the major issues facing the jua kali workers is the high tax imposed by the government. Jua kali workers are required to pay taxes whether or not they make money from their work. Along with paying high taxes, jua kali workers suffer poor working conditions. Their work is usually done in poorly built iron-and-wood workshops. In fact, most jua kali workers do not even have workshops to begin with—as mentioned earlier, the term “jua kali” refers to those working exposed to the elements. Without proper working conditions, jua kali businesses are usually prone to damage from fire and floods.
Another major problem facing the jua kali industry, especially business operators at the Kibuye open-air market on the Kisumu-Kakamega highway, are constant fire outbreaks destroying merchandise worth millions of shillings. In an article in the East African Standard newspaper, January 15, 2015, Anne Agwata, Jennipher Igena and Emmanuel Odia assert that fires are not new at Kibuye. The writers of the article observe that “Kibuye market has been recording a number of fire incidences (sic) with the most affected parts being the carpentry and the clothes section … residents attribute this to the congestion of business premises in the market.” According to the writers, a recent inferno at the Kibuye Market “started from a hotel kitchen and spread to adjacent shops. Most of the kiosks were wooden while some were made of iron sheets making the first to spread faster.” There is no system in place to stop fire from breaking out, or extinguishing it when it breaks out, yet local authorities never hesitate from collecting taxes from jua kali businesses….