Open-plan toilets give Kenyans freedom to express themselves

By Peter Kimani

Kenya: Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia says up to six million Kenyans, mainly in urban slums and rural areas, still defecate in the open. That is one in every eight Kenyans.

As a consequence of poor sanitation, children taking contaminated water die in droves from diarrhoea annually. The CS said diarrhoea is killing far more children than HIV, malaria and measles combined.

Yet, we are busy building superhighways and megacities, no doubt to hasten the movement of goods and services for those who can afford them.

But one in eight Kenyans will have a mobile toilet. One that is available anywhere and everywhere, as long as no one is watching.

In some instances, some have developed ‘flying toilets’ which means hurling human waste in polythene to the furthest reach of their arms.

Little space

The answer to this problem is fairly simple. It has actually worked in the past. All the colonialists did was to decree every household had to have a pit latrine. It did not matter to them what material was used to fix the structure.

The problem is that there is little space available in many city slums, while those in the villages are happy to use the waste as organic fertiliser. We should encourage them to express themselves.