Luthuli Avenue used to be the best place to buy smartphones, it’s not the case anymore. Many Kenyans are avoiding the street.
There are nasty stories from victims of the street. One lady purchased a smartphone at Luthuli Avenue for Ksh90,000. When coming out of the building,3 men surrounded him and took the phone by force and disappeared. She never recovered it. She suspects that the person who sold her the phone might have set her up.
At Luthuli Avenue, you’ll find many people posing like customers, but their intentions are different—they are waiting to rob people who have just purchased smartphones and TVs. The traders in the street know some of the robbers but they don’t bother to report them to police.
There are also many cases of people buying fake smartphones from the shops located at Luthuli Avenue. One buys a phone, pays Ksh50,000 hoping that it’s original only to find out that it was fake when he arrives at home. It’s difficult to trust people selling smartphones in the street.
Another problem is that most of them don’t give a sales warranty. When you arrive home and realise that it’s faulty, you will not return it to the seller.