If you take a walk in the streets of Nairobi City, you will not fail to notice clusters of street families. These unfortunate humans live in deplorable conditions right in the middle of East Africa’s gateway capital. Their conditions of living are unacceptable in this era and age. They deserve decency from all of us.
Their presence in the streets should worry us more than it worries them. No human should live in such conditions. None. While everybody else brags about living in the ‘green city under the sun’, theirs is a story full of horror, despondency and hopelessness.
They barely survive; literally, living from hand to mouth. As long as they hang out there, none of us will be safe. They are both a health risk and a security threat. We need to fix this problem, soonest. A city worthy of its salt should not have such monuments of shame littering her streets.
Nairobi earned her city status and should zealously guard it by ensuring that it takes good care of its street children. Cities all over the world are faced with this human challenge but they constantly address it.
In our case, our street families have been abandoned and left to survive at the mercy of passers-by. How inhuman are we? As we toss and turn in our cosy beds, cold and mosquitos make a killing of street families.
I sympathise with these Kenyans. Giving them money doesn’t solve their problems. It only worsens their predicaments. Imagine giving somebody money to buy food and failing to provide them with the basic sanitation like toilet. Yes, a toilet is a basic human need.
Kind Nairobians give them money and food during the day. At night these guys litter the back streets with faeces. How ironic. This is because washrooms in the city come at a fee. The street children don’t have enough money to prioritise toilet fees.
Business people who work near or around back streets are at constant risk of contracting diseases because of the unhygienic environment they operate in. Even visitors and people going about their business in the city are hit by stench from the makeshift toilets.
Just why can’t the Nairobi government offer free sanitation to street families? Governor Johnson Sakaja has advised city dwellers to be part of the solution rather than just complain. I want to offer my solution.
Previous efforts have been made to get rid of street families. Street families are a true reflection of who we are because these children must have come from us. Society, therefore, played a critical role towards the creation of this problem.
When families became dysfunctional, we created a breeding zone for social misfits. These street families are there because our families are not working. Simply put, street families are symptoms of a bigger malady. We can’t wish them away.
Firstly, the county government needs to acknowledge that street families are a threat to all of us. With the acknowledgement, we need to come up with ways to address it.
Secondly, urgently and most important, let us provide these street families with basic sanitation by setting aside amenities for their use. Allocating them two or three city council toilets is not asking for too much.
Alternatively, we can allow them to use city council toilets for free. Let us accord them human dignity. At least the risk of stepping on human faeces while crossing the streets will be minimised. Let us treat street families with love. Over to you my governor.
Doctorate student at UoN
