Huge price of open sewers across Kenya

The social, economic, cultural and physical environment in which we live has a significant effect on our health and wellbeing.

While genetics and lifestyle choices play a strong part in determining an individual’s state of health, the major precursors to good health are where we live, work, learn and play. 

In early July last year, Grammy Award winner Madonna visited Kenya on a charity mission and enlisted Kibera as one of the places to visit — as most other celebrities have done in the past.

She arrived, saw and snapped. The global star uploaded various posts while visiting the Kibera, highlighting the lives of those living in the slum. With more than seven million followers on Instagram, she documented and shared her perspective of life in there with the entire multitude.

In one particular Instagram post, she shared a picture of an open sewer flowing across the Kibera slum, while children played alongside it. The uproar then began.

Kenyans, including the Kibera MP Ken Okoth, castigated Madonna for being insensitive.

The vitriol against Madonna, I think, was unwarranted. Her photos captured where residents live, work, learn, and play daily.

Instead of anger the public should have responded by engaging in collective reflection on the kind of environment most Kenyans live in.
In reality, residents of slums live amidst filth potentially detrimental to public health.

The scene in Kibera is replicated elsewhere in Nairobi, and by extension, across the country.

According to the 2009 census, an estimated one in five Kenyans uses the bush as a toilet - access to piped water covers only 38.4 per cent of the urban population and 13.4 per cent of rural residents. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about a quarter of the diseases facing mankind today occur due to prolonged exposure to environmental pollution.

Improper management of solid waste is one of the main causes of environmental pollution and degradation.

The poor disposal and handling of waste thus leads to environmental degradation, destruction of the ecosystem and poses great risks to public health.

Ten years ago, the Unep commissioned a pilot study of the Dandora municipal waste dumping site in Nairobi to determine its impact on the environment and public health. They analysed soil, water, and blood samples. The results were appalling.

Poor sanitation costs Kenya more than Sh30 billion each year, according to a report by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) - with the highest economic burden falling disproportionately on the poorest.

Improving public health, therefore, will require taking a broader view of the conditions that ensure good health and wellbeing.