The Determinants of Street Vending Enterprise on Socio-Economic Empowerment of Urban Vendors in Kenya

Abstract

Socio-Economic entitlements are claims to access to resources; employment, education, skills, health, adequate living standards and income levels. In most developing economies principally in sub-Saharan Africa, the population continues to grow, and so does the number of people migrating to urban areas. Economic growth, on the other hand, does not keep up with the pace of population growth which outstrips the capacity of both industrial and urban socio-economic services to efficiently absorb the growing labor force. Street vending constitutes part of informal micro enterprises most dominant in urban areas developing economies. Regardless of their said significance and the existence of more than 5 million street traders in Kenya, their socio-economic contribution seems not to be well documented due to limited empirical evidence. This is manifested through their daily struggle in access to the trading space and conflicts of legality of the business. Thus, this study sought to establish the determinants of street vending enterprises on socio- economic empowerment of urban vendors in Kenya. The study was guided by five specific objectives: to assess the influence of resource mobilization of street vendors on socio-economic empowerment, to evaluate the influence of vendors’accessibility to market sites on socio-economic empowerment, to analyse the influence of availability of commodities on socio- economic empowerment, to establish the influence of business infrastructure on socio- economic empowerment and to examine the moderating influence of government policies and regulations on socio- economic empowerment of Urban vendors in Kenya.. The study was guided by Development as Freedom Approach and adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The target population of the study was 32,500 street vendors from Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu out of which a sample of 384 street vendors were selected. Multistage sampling was employed to arrive at a sample size. Primary data was collected using face to face questionnaire survey, interview guide, and observation guide was applied for triangulation which was administered by the researcher and research assistants. Piloting of the research instruments was conducted in one of the urban areas (Nakuru) which was not sampled for the main study. Content validity of research instruments was established through expert judgments and the reliability was established using Cronbach Alpha. All Likert scale items were reliable. Inferential statistics used were regression and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. The study established that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between resource mobilization with socio-economic empowerment (0.363, Sig.=0.000), a positive relationship between customer availability and socio-economic empowerment of street vendors (0.247, Sig.=0.000), a positive and statistically significant between availability of commodities and socio-economic empowerment of street vendors (0.127, Sig.=0.000), and finally business infrastructure has negative and significant effect (0.841, Sig.=0.000) level. Therefore, the study recommended that the government should empower street vendors financially through grants or soft loans to enhance their business. There is need for improvement in business infrastructure such as water, electricity and storage facilities. The policy makers should enact policies that will support trading on public space by street vending micro enterprises to enable them meet their roles.