Kenya: How Nairobi Sank Into Filth as Graft Held Sway

analysis

On a cold Nairobi morning a few weeks ago, Maj-Gen Mohamed Badi led a mixed team from the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and City Hall on an inspection tour of the city. In South C, residents had for years complained they were not getting piped water and were being forced to buy the precious commodity from vendors. City Hall, however, kept insisting it was pumping water to the neighbourhood every week.

Maj-Gen Badi said he needed to understand what was wrong, and asked engineers to locate the problem. It did not take long before the team came upon a shocking, if not brash, scene. The water pipes into South C had been cut, stuffed with mattresses, and sealed back. No matter how many litres of water the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company tried to pump into this neighbourhood, the residents were never going to get a drop of it because of that blockage.

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