Nairobi News

Mini lakes on road. Pumwani Road which leads to the famous Gikomba Market has to be the most dilapidated road in the city, says Abel Ngunjiri. As a business man in the area, he has seen the road deteriorate from some cracks, to potholes and now it is characterised by gullies. To make matters worse, he adds over time sewerage water has found its way into the gullies and formed ‘mini lakes’. Driving on the road, he says is a nightmare. He wonders what excuse the Kenya Urban Roads Authority has.

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Real bad news. The news that a Chicago firm this week ranked Nairobi as one of the cities to watch in real estate investment does not impress Evans Kisilu one bit. Kisilu, 27 has been putting aside some money every month to buy his dream home and says “it is news like this that will put my dream further from my reach.” He predicts, knowing how ‘career land speculators’ are quick to use such news to milk investors, the prices will increase astronomically.

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Police breaking the law. Lydia Mirigo may not be an expert in traffic matters, but, she says she is pretty sure vehicles are not supposed to be parked in the land between roundabouts. For a while, she points, she has been concerned about the buses, lorries and cars that are parked at the Jogoo Road-Outer Ring Road roundabout at the direction of traffic officers. This, she says, obviously obstructs the view of the motorists using the roads leading to snarl up. She says this is a case of the police breaking the law.

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New low. Mary Mugure is a disturbed woman after coming across a most shocking revelation. She says her brother was arrested by an Administration Police officer in Mathare North and locked in the AP Camp cells. When she visited the camp, the arresting officer informed Mary he was arrested because the area has many youths who engage in crime. No charges had been levelled against him since “another officer at Ruaraka Police Station would decide. This is a new low for our corrupt officers,” she says.

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Clean up definition. County Hall must have a different definition of market clean up, laments Benard Maluki who is at a loss of what to make of the reopening of Burma Market, only three days after it was closed. However, passing by the market yesterday on his way to work, he noted that it was business as usual. The market, he observes, is still as dirty as it was and the roadside drainage near where pick-ups park as they off load the meat is still clogged with mud.

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Toll fee for matatus. A suitable way to stop matatus from using estate roads to evade traffic on the main roads is to charge them a toll fee, advises Trevor Mureithi. He says the county government, on record admitting it is facing a cash crunch should look into this as a viable cash cow. The money used by the ‘philanthropic’ matatu crews to bribe police officers, he adds would be better used to maintain the roads they have destroyed over time. When this is done, Mureithi concludes the city will be an orderly place.

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