Nairobi, Feb. 8 -- Pushing past the bargain hunters, I stumble on buckets, then on mattresses lined up on the sidewalks. Here, at Kamukunji in Nairobi's downtown, business is booming.

Traders have displayed their wares on sidewalks; from suitcases to tea strainers. Carpets, blankets and duvets hang on balconies of high-rise buildings with stuffy, steep, squeezed staircases that you keep rubbing your body on the rails as you walk up.

There are no vacant shops as is the case in other shopping malls in Nairobi. In these small shops, there are hundreds of traders eager to sell. It is December and back-to-school season and the market is throbbing. Business is booming as thousands of low-income and middle-class Kenyans alike jostle through th...