Poor air quality that hangs over us in Nairobi

On a bright sunny day when you make forays into some Nairobi estates, be sure to develop an irritated nose and eyes akin when one has a cold. It is always a silent reminder of the suspended dust particles that we breathe in on daily basis. At the time of writing this article, there is already voluminous peer reviewed literature that points to the folly of poor urban planning in Nairobi which is just but a time bomb. Many urban spans in Nairobi’s Eastlands are wide stretches of concrete jungle with scanty vegetation.

You would probably think you’re in some desert somewhere in the Middle East when you move into some of these estates. Below the competing apartment blocks, broken sewer lines spew human waste on bare surfaces where you will find human trails, traversing in between the murky flow of grey content that the sewer lines ‘belch’ to the surface. During dry weather, the fine particles of human waste and other garbage get aloft and human beings and animals breathe it in. Of course, with naked eyes you can’t see it. Perhaps when you stay close to a road or an open field in such estates, dusts will always find its way into your house, ‘perching on your electronics and other surfaces in the house. Cumulative effects of this would always give your items a new hue altogether.