This archive report was first published on 27 December 2019.
Life in Nairobi: A Never-Ending Nightmare ¶
December 27, 2019
Nairobi, the second most congested city in the world after India's Kolkata, is a city where traffic jams, power blackouts, water shortages, and landlords who persecute tenants make life unbearable. The city's residents understand the anguish and risks of sitting in traffic jams for hours on end, with the average drive to the furthest residential areas outside the city centre taking two hours on a good day.
Private car users face a paucity of parking spaces and high charges, while public transport users are left dehydrated and in a foul mood by the time they reach work. The World Bank estimates that traffic jams in Nairobi cost the city Sh50 million each working day.
Despite these statistics, government strategists and planners have failed to alleviate the misery of commuters in Nairobi. Feasibility studies have been conducted, but solutions such as 'car-less' days and grandiose plans to build super expressways have been met with ridicule and failure.
Water shortages continue to bite in Nairobi, with the Ndakaini dam no longer the culprit. The Nairobi County government's haphazard manner of constructing residential houses, with 70% of them being illegal and lacking requisite approvals, has contributed to the problem. The lack of connection to water and sewage lines or the national power grid has led to frequent house collapses, with some being built on riparian land.
Landlords who prioritize greed over caution and regard for fellow human beings are also to blame. The recent Tassia house collapse tragedy highlighted the dangers of such landlords, who lure poor Kenyans to their deaths with the offer of cheap rent without paying deposit upfront.
Let's hope that the Damascus moment will soon happen to these landlords, and they will change their ways.
