This archive report was first published on 6 December 2019.
On November 19, the world marked International Toilet Day, a day to reflect on the state of dignified living and work for everyone. In Kenya, the cry remains the same: let us do more to give our children and citizens better sanitation served by sufficient water and maintained to a high hygiene standard.
Unfortunately, we are making very slow progress towards achieving meaningful availability of proper sanitation facilities, a situation that is more pronounced in schools. With a total population of nearly 11 million children, less than a fifth of them have access to adequate sanitation, leaving at least 8 million children highly exposed to communicable diseases.
The Ministry of Education and the various Boards of Management are responsible for ensuring that students have access to the required learning facilities, including proper sanitation. In partnership with the Church World Service, the ministry developed the Safety Standards Manual for Schools in Kenya, which outlines guidelines for sanitation. According to the manual, school pit latrines should be built at least 10 meters away from tuition and boarding facilities and regularly disinfected.
However, our investigation revealed that these guidelines are hardly followed. As Unilever Kenya prepared the Cleaner Toilets, Better Futures programme, we discovered that school administration and cleaners face an uphill task in maintaining toilets due to congestion and lack of sufficient toilet cleaning aids, including water.
The result is that primary school-going children are at risk of contracting diseases. Clearly, the Ministry of Education is overwhelmed, and head teachers are reaching out to community leaders, parents, and well-wishers to improve their lot. Private firms are forming partnerships with local schools to give children a dignified learning environment and keep them healthy and in school.
It is time for the Ministry of Education to take action and ensure that the sanitation guidelines in the safety manual are adhered to. The government must put its money where its mouth is and allocate sufficient funds for this part of the learning facilities. The Ministry of Water and Sanitation must also take up its role explicitly.
As the Homecare Director at Unilever Kenya, I urge everyone to pull in the same direction together to address this critical issue.
