Clean up uncovers 14 bodies floating on Nairobi Rivers
A major operation to clean up the trash-clogged rivers in the Kenyan capital has led to the grisly discovery of 14 bodies, most of them babies and children, the local government said Friday.
On Friday, clean-up crews found the body of an eight-year-old boy who had been strangled and dumped near the Nairobi River, just days after the bodies of twin babies were discovered in a plastic bag.
“Nairobi county youth conducting cleaning of Nairobi River have today (Friday) found yet another body of a… boy strangled and dumped near the river,” said county government spokesman Elkana Jacob.
“This makes a total number of 14 bodies of adults and infants retrieved from Nairobi rivers since Governor Mike Sonko launched the clean-up exercise,” he said.
Nairobi’s name comes from a Maasai phrase meaning “place of cool waters”, however the main river and its tributaries have fallen prey to industrialisation and chaotic urban planning.
Factories spew industrial waste into the rivers, while dozens of informal settlements with no proper sewage system or trash removal fill them with garbage and human waste.