The transport sector is by no means the sole perpetrator. More emitters are equally fully armed unloading an array of harmful substances into the air we breathe.Dear Kenyans; There is a war going on outside. We are all unsafe and our communities are in peril. All across our neighborhoods – from informal settlements and slums to the up-market areas across the local river, traversing our cities, to the satellite towns that are part of greater metropolitan areas, in our county seats and along our rural roadways.
The cocktail of airborne pollutants that we are all exposed to is akin to chemical warfare unleashed by a deeply aggrieved nemesis from another planet. Virtually all the air we breathe is polluted and toxic. The unexpected and relieving good news? The war is being waged across the globe and we are not alone? While we bear most of the responsibility, we also have what it takes to win this fight as it is an assault we collectively launched on ourselves.
The evidence does not get
as clear as out on our sidewalks where the exposure suffered would be simply mind
boggling if it wasn’t unlawful; Just take a walk. Black and white smoke spews unabatedly at the
ground level onto ordinary Nairobians on a daily basis.
Whether it’s frontage shop owners along downtown streets, commuters waiting, boarding or alighting from PSVs, joggers out to stay healthy; daily walkers already dealing with the economic reality. Be it school going children going through critical cognitive development or ordinary people going about normal business. No one is spared.
With their tailpipes aimed squarely at the roadsides, public service vehicles and heavy duty trucks would appear to be our number one culprits. However, it’s not just your favorite stage team saccos and construction tippers coughing poisons into our faces.
Their roadway comrades include private school vans, lorries and bodabodas that are all part of the act. Not to be left out are light trucks, aging SUVs and ordinary motor vehicles. They equally churn out visible smoke emissions filled with mixtures of hundreds of dangerous chemicals including many proven carcinogens.
The transport sector is by no means the sole perpetrator. More emitters are equally fully armed unloading an array of harmful substances into the air we breathe. Uncontrolled open burning of waste that includes hazardous materials and single-use plastics produce lethal air toxics while domestic charcoal use, biomass and wood fuel burning and roadside cooking are all sources of dangerous particulate matter emissions.
Ultimately the situation is akin to living next to an open sewer. It would be unconscionable to open the over-flow valves of your household septic tank and release raw sewage onto neighborhood roads, fields and open drains. You also just simply wouldn’t let anyone empty their waste into your back yard. We must see uncontrolled air pollution for what it really is. An unconstitutional assault on our air quality, a public good that must be protected and for which effective interventions are long overdue.
Studies are yet to fully quantify the true cost of air pollution in Kenya. However, we know that the health burden it causes globally is devastating. The World Health Organization (WHO) tells us that short and long-term exposure can lead to a wide range of diseases, including stroke, various cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, aggravated asthma and lower respiratory infections. There is further strong evidence of links between exposure to air pollution and type 2 diabetes, reproductive complications, mental health problems, obesity, systemic inflammation, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Quite simply put, the science is conclusive and the
effects, well known. These impacts are
devastating to each and every one of us and our immediate families. Action can and must be taken! This can only happen though the convening of
a unified coalition representative of us all. As we all are polluters. Communities, public policymakers and
regulators, business and industry, research institutions and political actors must
get on the ground and work collaboratively to act, raise awareness, advocate
and innovate sustainably along product value chains. The tide will surely turn and we can all soon
step out, look down the road and breathe easy.
The author is the chairperson of HewaSafi Foundation
