Nairobi to Issue ID Badges for Street Photographers in Push to End Harassment

Nairobi’s street photographers are set to get something they have long worked without: official recognition. Governor Johnson Sakaja announced on September 16 that the county will roll out a registration and identification system, issuing badges to recognised creatives as a way of separating legitimate operators from unregistered ones.

The move follows an engagement with photographers, several of whom told the Governor they had been harassed and shaken down for bribes while simply doing their jobs.”The County will introduce a formal registration and identification system for street photographers, including badges, to distinguish recognised creatives operating in the city,” Sakaja said. “The initiative will enable the County to identify and support photographers while giving them a formal identity as they carry out their work.”

The plan extends a decision the county made in 2022 to let street photographers work freely, a policy that opened a livelihood path for young Nairobi residents. Since then, their numbers have grown, and with that growth has come friction over who is legitimately working and who is not.

Sakaja was also careful to draw a line on cost. He clarified that the county’s Finance Act does not levy charges on street photographers under the free photography arrangement. The fees that do exist running as high as Ksh50,000 apply to heavy commercial photography, not to the everyday shooters working the streets.

The registration system carries a second purpose. The county wants photographers to help document littering, illegal dumping, vandalism and other violations, including misconduct by matatus and boda bodas. In effect, the people the county is formalising would also become part of its monitoring network.

That dual role is worth watching. A badge that protects a photographer from harassment could, in the wrong hands, become a tool of surveillance or a licence the county can withhold. How the registration is administered, and whether it stays free and accessible, will determine whether this reads as protection or control.

Alongside the registration plan, the county is working to roll out free Wi-Fi in selected areas a move Sakaja said would help creatives market their work and reach wider audiences. For photographers whose business depends on uploading and sharing images quickly.