I was looking forward to the rains, not the flooding, of course. My heart goes out to all the flood victims displaced from their homes and those who have lost loved ones.
My anticipation for the rains heightened when I saw workers clear drainages. Well, this being Nairobi, all the debris from the trenches is still on the sidewalks.
Worse still, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company came digging just as were experiencing 'light showers' and the Met was unsure whether the rains would intensify. It needed to lay pipes, you see, which is OK.
But now Nairobi Water has disappeared leaving all the soil it scooped on the pavement and in trenches. Shouldn't Nairobi Water be obligated to restore the infrastructure it has ruined to its original condition?
Then a few days ago some 'developer' who had excavated this piece of land, to put up a building, I guess, resurfaced after a long time. His trucks have destroyed trenches and muddied our once-clean road. I keep asking myself, will he be made to clean up this road?
And don't get me started on the overflowing sewage. Last weekend I met a neighbour who was injured in a road accident trying to navigate the overflowing sewage and I felt like weeping. It was too painful to watch.
The point of all this rumbling is, as pedestrians we deserve to walk on pavements not be forced to compete with vehicles on the road, endangering our lives. And yes, we deserve to walk on clean pavements.
We deserve to live and operate in a clean environment and not have to jump over overflowing sewage. When will Nairobi Water step up and fix the sewage mess and remove the soil it left on our pavements?
