Vehicles are banned from the roads from 0500 until 1200 so that wide dustbin lorries can travel freely and load piles of rubbish that residents collect and leave at transit points.
Impromptu games of street football take place in roads that are usually gridlocked with traffic and filled with exhaust fumes, impatient honking and shared minibus taxis careering round corners.
Only the occasional diplomatic 4x4 vehicle can be seen speeding around the city's eerily empty streets.