Why work at night and on weekends only? Nairobi Water staff accused of endangering lives for overtime pay
Staff from Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) dug up a trench to access an underground water pipe on Tuesday night, left an open ditch that saw residents struggle to access their homes, then returned to continue the work on Saturday.
That happened at the Golden Gate Drive in Nairobi’s South B and residents say it was all due to their greed for overtime pay among Naiwasco staff.
According to Ms Hilda Mwangi, a resident, the NCWSC workers arrived at around 7pm on Tuesday to begin a pipe replacement process.
Ms Mwangi told Nairobi News that the staff came without notice and that most residents only discovered the impact of the nocturnal works the following morning.
“Residents are unable to use their cars as vehicles are trapped inside,” Ms Mwangi complained on Thursday.
She added that her father, like many senior citizens residing in the seven houses that were affected, bore the brunt of the open ditch.
“He slid on the freshly unearthed mud and fell to the ground,” she said. That fall was made worse due to the fact that the elderly man is recovering from a spinal surgery.
“Other residents are thoroughly inconvenienced. Small children have to be carried by school bus drivers so they can get through the mud,” she added.
Ms Mwangi said this was not the first time NCWSC was working at the estate at night. In April, she said, they did the same when an underground pipe burst near an electricity cable.
We contacted NCWSC for a comment but they had not responded by the time of publishing this story.