Long arms of the law

One reason I'm optimistic that the KAI raids against street vendors here will eventually stop (or at least slow down) is that they are such horrible public spectacles.

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I was on board a bus waiting to leave Ojota this week when suddenly there was commotion by the side door. Two boys were fighting. Then I saw people scurrying in panic from the open space nearby. It was a KAI raid in process. The fight at the side door was an undercover agent beating a young Gala seller, who was struggling, as if for his life, to get away. Some other KAI officers grabbed a large elderly woman trader, whose defense mechanism was to lie down in the mud and wail like a child. It worked! The officers let her go. I guess they did not have the heart to haul her into the "Black Maria" paddy wagon nearby (pictured above, with the Gala hawker being pushed inside by some undercover and some uniformed KAI men).

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And very possibly the crowd would not have allowed it, either. The newspapers here have reported on two cases where crowds of onlookers have turned in outrage against KAI forces, once chasing them into a nearby hospital, where the officers sought protection from police.

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Pretty crazy. But its hard to witness one of these raids without feeling great sympathy for the vendors, if not outrage at KAI's aggressive tactics. As more and more regular people see what is happening first-hand, I am hopeful that it will lead to a more thoughtful, and less harsh, enforcement policy regarding street vendors in Lagos State. We'll see.

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