Street Vendors’ Perception on the Status of Street Vending Legalization in Tanzania Before and After the 5th Government

Abstract

The paper determines the status of street vending activities in the country, based on street vendors’ views, and compares the views before and after the 5th government. The paper uses a mixed methods research approach with a concurrent embedded design. Data were collected from September 2020 to February 2021 from 371 respondents from Dar es Salaam and Mwanza cities through proportionate Stratified sampling. Data were collected by a questionnaire and analyzed by computing descriptive statistics and running a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test. The findings indicated that street vendors perceived themselves illegal before the 5th government and legal “but based on political pronouncements” from the 5th government onwards. It is concluded that street vending is currently tolerated but not legal in Tanzania. Thus, the central and local governments should enact a street vending legalization policy to minimize future clashes between street vendors and para-military troops when political pronouncements are revoked.