Why Mombasa county clerk was ‘gifted’ human waste

A section of Mombasa residents marked the World Toilets Day in style and decided to gift their county clerk.

The gift was well packaged and presented to Salim Juma at the county assembly offices by Mombasa residents who were out to share their frustrations.

It all began with a peaceful demonstration by a team identifying themselves as Rapid Response Team (RRT). The march ended at the county assembly with the residents handing over a gift addressed to the county clerk.

The gift box contained human faeces, soiled diapers and used sanitary pads. By this, the residents wanted to express their anger fueled by lack of enough toilets in public areas and in the slums.

 “We hope this will serve as a constant reminder to the MCAs on the need to respect, protect and craft policies that observe human rights,” said one of the RRT members.

The residents of Muoroto Tudor also presented a letter to their county clerk demanding dignified living spaces, with essential water and sanitation services.

“We are over 10,000 Kenyans who have been living in this community... For over four decades, we have only one functional toilet in the community, we have never had water, proper drainage, designated dumpsites, our neighbours in the estates deposit their waste to our community both garbage and faeces, ours is an open sewer,” read part of the letter.

Today on #WorldToiletDay people of Muoroto Tudor stand to demand dignified living spaces- with essential water and sanitation services by presenting an open letter to the County Clerk. #PoopInMombasa pic.twitter.com/KRxyFYwYwq — Amnesty Kenya (@AmnestyKenya) November 19, 2019

The residents further stated that the dumpsite being used doubles up as their children playground.

Salim Juma promised to table their concerns at the assembly and that he will keep engaging the community on the emerging issues.

Mombasa has been notorious for cholera cases for the past few years.

According to a report by Ministry of Health, Mombasa was among the 11 counties that recorded cholera outbreak cases as at September 16, 2019.

The county recorded 82 cases. No death was reported.

The report noted that county teams were facing challenges of poor sanitation like open defecation, weak enforcement of public laws, poor health services seeking behaviours, limited resources in rapid response, poor reporting by counties and lack of surveillance.