Background
On 11/3/15 we joined Fieke on a trip to Athi River to assess its water sanitation and waste management situation. We were accompanied by representatives from Umande trust, ENGO, women’s groups, youth groups and other social workers. All but Umande Trust, whose headquarters are in Nairobi, were based in and around Athi River. We formed a strong network between us.
Athi River is a sub county of Machakos county. It is a very industrialized area with lots of employment opportunities, attracting many people over the years from all over Kenya resulting in a large population increase. Slums have begun to mushroom and if they are not upgraded soon, the situation could get out of hand.
The Day’s Events
After a long journey from Machakos, aboard a maruti that’s engine couldn’t decide whether it wanted to start or not, we arrived at Athi River and met up with our team. We headed to a nearby hotel for chai and a quick briefing. After a quick round of introductions we began with an overview of the situation. Mercy, a social worker, broke down the area into multiple zones and slums identifying which ones were the worst. After we’d chosen three slums we considered to have the poorest waste management and sanitation situation we concluded our meeting and proceeded to tour around them.
Prior to visiting the slums we paid a few courtesy calls to various authority figures and stakeholders in the area. First on our list was the Ward Administrator but unfortunately he was busy, we notified his work force to be aware of our presence in the slums. We then hopped on a maruti up to the public health offices near Sophia (one of our chosen slums) and informed the ladies there of our presence in Athi River and concern for formalities.
Sophia was a sprawl of corrugated metal housing, piles of waste and informal settlements. There were no sanitation facilities and access to water was a challenge despite there being a few water points installed by the government and other benefactors. The solid and sewer waste situation was all over the place, literally, and requires serious intervention.
Our second slum was KMC; although technically separate from Sophia most of the slums seemed to be joined in one way or another. The situation there was very much the same with makeshift metal housing; no sanitation facilities; limited water access and no waste management systems at all. We wandered for a while down paths and alleyways leading deeper into the heart of the slum. Once there we met the ‘Mama Wa Maendeleo’ and made her aware of our being there. She let us know all about the area as well as her role within the community. She also told us about how she generates some income through the buying and selling of recyclable materials from local residents to the recycling industries.
At this point we decided to find somewhere to eat; we emerged from the slum at cross roads I instantly recognized to be by the stage where we’d first been dropped off all those hours ago. We found a café, ordered our food and decided to debrief. Our third slum was called Canaan; we decided not to visit it as we had been told the situation was almost exactly the same as Sophia and KMC. We sampled our findings and agreed on a course of action, exchanging numbers and contact information.
After all was said and done the three of us from Red Cross boarded a maruti back towards Mombasa road. As luck would have it, a Red Cross patrol vehicle was returning from Nairobi at the very moment we arrived at the junction, and it had room for the three of us. We hopped in, sat back and appreciated Davey’s impeccable music taste all the way home.
-Ben
VSO Machakos 