Each evening, Daniel Irungu and his friend John Ndegwa gather a dozen pairs of second-hand shoes and take them out onto the streets of Nairobi Central Business District, hoping to make a sale before the last office workers head home. If they don’t manage to sell anything, they may have to stay in town until past midnight, waiting to raise enough money for the journey home and back the following evening.
Their biggest worry, however, is not whether or not they will make a sale, but getting arrested by askaris (local law enforcers), being locked up overnight and fined.
