Hawkers vs. Police

A few days ago I experienced one reason why Nairobi has a reputation of being a dangerous city. Max and I were returning from Kabete when a fight erupted between the police and the hawkers. The hawkers are illegal street vendors who inhibit the flow of traffic. The police usually try to surprise attack them, and sometimes they retaliate. Max and I were just walking along when all of a sudden we heard two gunshots fired and everyone started running. Max told me to give him my purse (which I did) and he grabbed my hand so we wouldn't get separated in the stampede. We ran until we reached the safe side of town. I was so scared because I had no idea what was going on! I was thinking gang war or terrorist attack or something terrible like that! When we stopped Max explained that the police were just clearing out the hawkers by firing shots into the air, and that he had taken my purse because often times thieves will try to snatch bags when everyone is running and it's chaos. I was relieved to know that this was a semi-normal occurrence and not something to be too scared about! Max escorted me home, but while watching the news later I learned that the fighting had escalated and that one woman had caught a stray bullet and later died. I'm glad we got out of there when we did! So moral of this story is to always travel with a local when going to that side of town, because they know what to do in a situation like that. In fact, we plan on taking an alternative route until everything settles down a bit. So just know that we are taking all precautions, and although I was scared as hell in that moment, I continue to feel very safe here in Nairobi.