Rain started beating Nairobi residents when we got sloppy

This week’s loss of Kenyan lives to predictable natural events, especially coming soon after the unfortunate killings in Kenya of the north, is distressing. What makes these deaths annoying is that for several weeks the meteorological department kept indicating the possibility of unusually heavy rains. Despite these predictions and the history of storm-related disasters, we went on in our normal laissez faire, happy go-lucky mode until the rains struck and then we reacted in our expected manner.

Citizens, particularly the social media type, shared instagram photos and status updates describing their misfortunes almost in competition with each other. The average Kenyan went into complaint mode, blaming this or that other public official for their misfortune.

Government officers on the other hand conducted their usual inspection tours, expressed shock and surprise at the extent of damage and promised to do something to sort out the matter. They then quickly retreated, guerilla style, to the safety of their less water-logged homes. The only breath of fresh air was National Youth Service Czar Anne Waiguru who ordered an “operation unclog the drains” offering to deploy 10,000 NYS youth to assist in the project.

If this project takes off, it may, after the slum renewal programmes that NYS has been undertaking, silence skeptics of the NYS re-engineering programme since NYS now will be the only entity with resources and capacity to carry out major public works at minimal cost to the exchequer.

While I hold the government responsible for poor planning and the unhappy state of our drainage infrastructure that inevitably leads to these disasters, I am unwilling to exonerate the public for these tragedies that we now suffer with regularity. On the rains-related disasters, it is obvious that a combination of poor drainage and poor planning accelerated the negative impact of the unusually strong torrents.

Granted, planning authorities routinely approve plans for construction without a care about environmental consequences. The reality, however, is that the citizen is a willing participant in most of the processes that lead to disaster. In the case of drainage for example, the majority of existing drains have been rendered inoperable through basic citizen misbehaviour.

Kenyans and Nairobians especially are notorious for the obnoxious habit of throwing garbage out of car widows, boots or just leaving it to be tendered by nature. The natural consequence of this deluge of garbage is blocked drains and inevitable flooding. How do you explain this indiscipline, nay misbehaviour? Do we need government to make us stop throwing our own garbage onto our own roads to block our own passages and destroy our own properties and our own lives?

On the other hand some of the runaway floods are caused by citizens carrying out construction on riparian reserves and natural watercourses. These constructions go on in full view of the eventual victims of this breach of the law. Somehow, the eventual victims trudge on and allow these “private developers” to impose death sentences on them and their children. They assume helplessness and plead incessantly for government to assist. I wonder what would happen if we applied the well-recognised remedy of self-help when such characters threaten our lives? I am not calling for mob-injustice, but the kind of civic action I see in Karengata where neighbourhood groups just says No to irresponsible developments?

A large number of deaths have also occurred because people are living in areas they know are vulnerable, somehow hoping nature will be gracious when it strikes. Narok is a case in point. For decades Narok has been known to be vulnerable to flooding. Every so often people die and properties are damaged when heavy rains strike. Yet the public and its leadership continue in a suicide pact, refusing to move the town to higher grounds and willing to sacrifice several lives every rainy season. Who will save us from ourselves?

Nairobi’s mayhem also arises from the rain-induced madness that leads us to irresponsible driving once the slightest drizzle starts; converting our roads to giant snarl-ups. Granted government has much it must do to ensure the safety of its citizens, but this hand-wringing through which citizens abandon civic responsibility, even for their own safety, is, honestly, sickening.