Nairobi News

Where to hide? Nairobians have been warned too many times to avoid crowded areas because the Al Shabbab — or whoever has been bombing places and killing people — has an interest in big numbers, says Maina Cheptuk. He wonders how one can go to work and return without having been in a crowded place.

After reading a story in the Wednesday issue of this paper titled “Forget security, we live by God’s mercies,’ Cheptuk says he totally agrees that there is no way residents can be sure to be safe because the targeted places are unavoidable.

Again the terrorists seem quite unpredictable as evidenced by the latest attacks on buses — so when we are busy bomb-proofing the buses, they will strike a school or some other crowded place which no one will have thought about. Let’s be vigilant though, he advises.

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Drink deaths. Who is to blame for the kind of tragedy that cost over 60 lives countrywide and six in Nairobi? asks Jane Mwerevu.

There is the brewer, who will argue they have a family to fend for and no job; the corrupt police officer or the chief, who agrees to see no evil after a dose of kitu kidogo (bribe); and the man or woman who provides a market for the lethal brews; thereby putting the brewer and the administrators in ‘temptations’.

The anti-drug abuse agency boss John Mututho even issued a warning to administrators for abetting such brew dens in their areas, but doesn’t the drinker owe him/herself or their families some responsibility.

How does someone go drinking harmful stuff, knowing well the results could be fatal or worse still could make them a burden to others if they went blind? Mwerevu asks.

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Betrayal in the city. Our courts are betraying us and they should know better than to release terror suspects. They need to apply the public interest principle to deny terror suspects bail, says Salim Muniz. They have the power to deny the suspects bail by asking for high amounts that they may not afford.

But it is clear that terror suspects have what it takes to be bailed out. He urges the courts to assist at any cost to contain terror by not releasing the suspects, who may disappear and get a chance to accomplish bigger crimes which they may have had in mind.

Some of these people can cause a lot of harm because they don’t fear death since they are made to believe they are earning themselves goodies from above by being brave enough to commit the terror acts, he says.

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Traffic woes. Jams have become too much in the last few weeks and Jackson Kuria is not amused. Are the roads getting narrower or is it the number of motorists that has grown disproportionally to the infrastructure? he asks.

Whatever happened to the measure that County Hall was supposed to put in place to discourage motorists from driving into the city centre?

Kuria says it has been taking him more than two hours to get to town from him place on Kangundo Road and it has been annoying to imagine all the people who get caught up, wasting fuel and man hours, which could be worth billions in a country as poor as this.

Someone do something to unclog the traffic snarl-ups before they can drive us crazy, pleads the Saika resident.