NAIROBI: A county government’s competence is measured against its ability to provide basic services. These include garbage collection, healthcare, unclogging of sewage lines and providing clean, safe drinking water among others.

Kenyan citizens pay taxes regularly in exchange for these services and are therefore entitled to them. Unfortunately, the Nairobi City County Government has failed in this regard. From traffic snarl ups and clogged sewage lines to poor medical services, stinking garbage heaps and lack of water, the county is experiencing it all.

Water shortages in Nairobi are nothing new. What is disturbing is the apparent lack of goodwill to address this perennial problem that many residents believe has to do with corruption and cartels that operate with the knowledge and blessings of some top officials in the seat of power in the county government.

This lethargy is causing untold suffering to many families while exposing them to health risks.
Residents of Nairobi’s Highrise estate blocked Mbagathi Road on Saturday to protest against a water shortage that has persisted for years now.

The hope that residents harboured after the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company sunk boreholes early this year has since evaporated after noting that the company has not gone ahead to install water pumps. Notably, the water problem cuts across all of Nairobi’s middle and lower-end estates, some of which go for months without water. Yet billing is as regular as can be expected.

What is emerging is that the water shortages in these estates are deliberately created by unscrupulous individuals working in cahoots with some county government officials to make a killing from selling water at unrealistic prices. It is exploitative to sell a 20-litre jerrican of water for between Sh50 and Sh100.

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Because many people cannot afford this, the county government must come out of its lethargy and fix the water problem once and for all.