Where will our kids play?

I recently visited a relative in Donholm who happens to have a five-year old son. Something struck me as odd.

The son kept interrupting us with his indoor football game. Soon, he took his bicycle and started cycling around the house.

I wanted to ask why the child couldn’t go out to play. But it hit me that there is no place the kid could conceivably play, except maybe pay for play time at the Greenspan Mall.  Donholm was once a prestigious neighbourhood for the middle-class, but it is now riddled with hideous apartments, leaving only small room for dusty footpaths.

It is the story of virtually all neighbourhoods in Eastlands, with Pipeline being a disaster. The footpaths are also passageways for the sewage waste from the flats. Walking around these neighbourhoods requires skill, navigating through the sea of humanity, while also trying not to step into the sewage is an art in itself.

I will not even mention the life of our children in slums such as Kibera, Mathare, Dandora and Mukuru. I grew up in Kibera and know that there is nothing funny about picking a ball from a ditch that is full of all manner of human waste.

But nothing has changed in Kibera for more than 25 years.  We seem not to be ready for a conversation on how to improve the living conditions in our neighbourhoods.

Somethings as basic as a park or playgrounds for children is a no-brainer for any developer. You’ll hardly find any decent open space for kids to play in the entire Eastlands.

There are a few playgrounds belonging to churches and schools, even though greedy political grabbers are always scheming how to lay their hands on these plots.

Less caring parents just let their children play in the dust and sewers, risking all manner of infections. The caring types who happen to live in middle-class neighbourhoods don’t mind driving to a mall for their children to play and ride the thingamajigs at a cost.

Kenya has been cursed with leaders without a vision. I was in my early 20s when news broke out that some men had stolen public land meant for the expansion of Lang’ata Cemetery.

Imagine, how brainless you have to be for you to conspire to grab public cemetery land. I was benumbed when someone attempted to grab a school playground in broad day light.

The consequences of having a heavily congested and polluted city, with people leading lowly lives are too dire. We may not be able to see them now, but they will be eating us as time goes by.

Obesity, waterborne and airborne infections will be multiplying every year, not mention that many talents will be stifled due to the lack of space where they can train -  be it in sports or arts.