• Muoroto residents have to live with poor drainages, open sewers, lack of clean water and garbage menace.
• If nothing is done, they promise to face Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho after presenting human faeces as a way of protesting.
We have been left out! This is what runs in the heads of residents of Muoroto, a slum area in Mombasa, Tudor area.
The residents do not believe there is actually a government that is supposed to help them out so they live a normal life. Elections to them are just a joke since they feel like they voted yet they are not getting services.
All sorts of trouble that leave them at risk of different diseases as they are surrounded by garbage from every corner, open sewers, lack of toilets, water problem and insecurities, these are the major problems facing them, all this posing them to serious health risks.
Just as you enter Muoroto, you would notice a change as you are welcomed with heaps of garbage lying all over the place. The residents say they have never seen a garbage truck in the area.
Sarah Ndunge, a resident, said the county government has really left them behind.
“We know the county government commissioned 10 garbage trucks just recently but it is sad that we have never seen even one coming to collect the garbage here,” she said.
Ndunge said the garbage is mainly being dumped by people from a nearby estate who cannot be controlled, as residents also do the same.
The area become a dumpsite while they know very well there is a dumpsite in Mwakirunge. Ndunge said they used to dump the garbage in the ocean but they were restricted from doing so as they were educated by people from Nema that they are affecting the marine life and therefore had to stop.
“People were restricted from dumping garbage in the ocean which is a good thing, then why can’t those trucks be organised so that at least there can be like two trucks that will be going round to collect the garbage? We are just being told that they will come but we have never seen them,” she said.
NO SAFE, CLEAN WATER
It has been long since the residents saw clean and safe water running on their taps from the county government.
The residents are forced to buy freshwater, which they use mainly for drinking as they use salty water from wells and boreholes for other purposes.
“A jerrican of clean freshwater is being sold at Sh20. There is a mother who cannot afford it,” Ndunge said, adding that others are forced to use the borehole water also for drinking.
The residents, however, are not sure whether the water they buy as fresh and clean is completely clean, as they are brought with trucks. They blindly buy it not knowing the source of the water.
“Water trucks carry freshwater, which fills up drums and it is then sold to us at Sh20,” she said.
Moreover, the area has only one public toilet. The rest are privately owned, and the residents have to pay a fee to use them.
While some can afford them, others are forced to either line up to use the public toilet or use flying toilets.
Village elder Shaban Mgalla, who controls the public toilet, said it is quite hectic to use the toilets as there are long queues of people who want to use it.
People are forced to share the toilet from men to women to the young and the old.
“When you go there in the morning, you will have to queue. You would find more than 20 people in the queue just waiting to use the same toilet,” he said.
Sadly enough, the drainages to the toilets end up in the ocean as there are no septic tanks in the area, as the soil is not favourable to dig up foundations for septic tanks.
“To say the truth, our toilet is where you flush and it goes into the ocean,” he said, explaining how the toilet works.
The drainages to the ocean for the raw sewage are not covered, and one is able to see the filth moving as it goes straight into the ocean.
Muoroto has a population of about 20,000 people. Their children tend to play around the uncovered drainages of raw sewage. The sewers are also not covered, exposing them to health risks.
The parents are scared and they know their children are exposed to different diseases, which they say they have even gotten used to.
In terms of security, crime is rampant, especially theft, rape and defilement, as darkness at night provides safe spaces for criminals to do their evil deeds.
Rape and defilement cases are rarely reported to the authorities because the perpetrators are residents and threaten the people after doing the act.
There are security lights but they do not light up. It has been long since residents saw them on.
Bahati Kunga, a resident and gender-based violence activist, said the defilement cases will prevail if something is not done to improve security, including reviving the security lights.
“The parents whose children are victimised are not reporting. They think it is shameful and in other cases, they are threatened by the perpetrators so they remain silent and eventually give up,” Kunga said.
MCA'S RESPONSE
Speaking to the Star, Tudor MCA Samba Tobias said as a leader, he is doing his best to ensure the people are living decently.
On solving the water problem, he said there are challenges of access roads to take tanks to different parts. The idea is to instal tanks to provide fresh water to the residents instead of them looking for the water in distant areas.
Getting access roads would mean bringing down some houses, and this, he said, the residents do not agree with.
“If they do not want to evacuate, how will we get access roads?” Tobias asked.
He said, however, that there are mechanisms underway to ensure there is water at the area and that there are contractors working on installing tanks.
On matters of security, he said he has already taken five high max lights at the area and has already done a letter which he is following up on to ensure security measures are at the best.
Digging up pit latrines for safer toilets is quite difficult, he says, as the soil is unfavourable for digging.
He accused the national government of not allocating enough funds to ensure there are toilets. “There is no money budgeted but I am doing a follow-up on getting a budget for the toilets,” Tobias said.
However, he said there is no space to build toilets, meaning that some people have to be evacuated to pave way for them.
He dismissed claims that garbage trucks have never been seen in the area.
“Tudor was allocated two trucks which go around the area, so it is the responsibility of the residents to ensure they take the garbage to the pick-up point,” he said.
Tobias accused the residents of being irresponsible by throwing garbage on drainage systems, which tends to block them. He also blamed them for the open sewers.
“The open sewers were covered but it is unfortunate that the residents steal the covers,” he said, also blaming them for vandalising the sewer lines whenever they are constructed.
He said plans are underway to improve the area, but some of the residents would have to suffer as they will be evacuated to make space for the development.