"I have to leave my house latest by 5:30 in the morning so that I can make it to Gikomba open air market and buy more goods then I walk to Muthurwa in time to catch the first customers from upcountry before the rest of the other traders get there, " Josphat Maluta told Xinhua.

 Maluta is one of the hawkers who were moved from Nairobi's central business district (CBD) to the new market for informal traders called Muthurwa market just outside the CBD. He does not complain as his business has continued to flourish.

 The Muthurwa market was build on a 12-hectare piece of land acquired from the Kenya Railway cooperation at the cost 700 million shillings, a move meant to control hawking and traffic congestion in the city center.

 The market is located about one and a half kilometres from the CBD and spans a two kilometre square area which also consists of a bus terminus. The market was meant to accommodate 8,000 traders.

 ''I used to work as a potter at the Wakulima retail market which is just across the road from here. Thenone day a friend of mine introduced me to this business which now gives me my daily bread," said Maluta who trades in second-hand cloths like most  trades in this market.

 ''I have been hawking for 4 years and have been arrested at the CBD several times by the city council police before I got a space here to sale my wares," he said, referring to his having to evade the council police round in the CBD earlier.

 Gideon Muyee, who hawks sweets and assorted items, told Xinhua ''ever since I finished school, I have been a hawker. I have never had another job, because I never got a chance anywhere else. I have a family and earn about 3,000 shillings per month".

 "The good thing the city council did was to provide us with  customers by moving some Public service vehicle operators from CBD to this bus terminus within the market."

 " In fact, most traders are happy with this arrangement," said Irene Wanja who sales vegetables with her two-year-old son on her back.

 All traders are allocated the equal space for 50 shillings per day but those with more wares to sale and display can pay for extra space if it is available within the area they are operating from.

 Allocation of space within the market was done on a first come bases. For one to get the most ideal space you had to be there early enough .

 But the market has its own set of problems as John Mutiso lamented "People purporting to be hawkers have occupied as many as eight stalls, which they then sub-let. We don't recognise them because they are not genuine. Hawkers know each other and we don't know some of these people."

 This contradicts the basic idea behind the market. During the commissioning of the construction work in December 2006, then local government minister Musikari Kombo said the market would be truly a "hawkers bazaar", devoid of cartels, middlemen or brokers.

 Rose Mulundu , who runs a clothes business from a stall in Ronald Ngala street within the CBD told Xinhua that the move to relocate the hawkers could not have been more timely.

 "They used to block the pavement with their wares, keeping away our customers. Many customers could not access our premises since the hawkers could have spread out their goods everywhere,'' she recalled.