When mentally ill women meet mad men at night

When mentally ill women meet mad men at night

Recently, during an informal men’s baraza, attended by PointBlank, the subject of the young mentally unstable woman in Huruma, Nairobi, who had been locked away by her mother for years came up. Incredibly, all the men sympathised with the mother and supported her decision to lock up her daughter.

Cruel woman, you might say, but the men felt she was safer in her dungeon than in the streets.

Beasts in trousers

Letting her roam the streets, they all agreed, would be tantamount to putting her in the hands of demented rapists. Each of the men at the baraza admitted having heard of a mentally unsound woman who had been sexually assaulted.

One confessed that her schizophrenic cousin once returned home with a child, whose father she didn’t know, after running away from home for months.

Lets face it folks, (some) men are beasts in trousers. So what should the Huruma mother have done? Take her daughter to hospital? She said she had tried that and despaired. Let her daughter loose? Well, be the judge.

Bett invited for a bumpy ride on Vitz

Steven Shime is volunteering to take the Roads minister on a countrywide trip to show him what he thinks are good and bad speed bumps.

Mr Shime argues that bumps are a leading cause of road accidents and, therefore, there is need to standardise them. More attention, he advises, needs to be paid to the height, width and shape of the bumps.

He gives a list of humps that he says can pass his ‘standard’ test. They include the ones at Kikopey along Nairobi-Nakuru highway and those along Nakuru-Timboroa highway which were erected recently.

The bad and the ugly ones include those along Free Area-58-Nakuru road which are "small and very sharp". The most ridiculous ones are to be found on the Kisumu-Busia road at Ebuyangu and also along Kakamega-Mumias road. "They are huge, sharp and too high to the extent that pedestrians would have a problem walking over them!" he says.

Is there something like a standard bump, Roads minister Franklin Bett? If not, kindly accept Shime’s offer for a bumpy-around-the-country ride on his Vitz and come back with a solution.

Queries over quarrying plan

A decision by Ministry of Livestock allegedly allowing quarrying activities on its 40-acre land next to Kerarapon Drive is raising a storm.

Kerarapon Residents Association through its Chairman Daudi Nturibi and member Robert Ouko say the quarrying is supposed to provide materials for the construction of the Southern by-pass in Nairobi. And while they have nothing against the building of the road, the residents claim they were not consulted, as required by law, over the proposed mining.

They are opposed to the establishment of the quarry, which they term as an important water catchment. Nturibi is worried that the mining will affect Kerarapon Springs, "The only source of water for residents of Kerarapon, Kibiko, Olepolos, Karen and the source of Mbagathi and Athi rivers".

Noise and dust

"In addition, the quarry will be a health hazard due to noise, dust, and an increase of water-borne diseases." They want the National Environment Management Authority, which they claim ignored them in its Environmental Impact Assessment, to stop the project and institute a "proper assessment". Anything to say in mitigation, Nema?

Safaricom spoils MP’s safari

Most of us think that waheshimiwas’ words are always taken seriously by all and sundry. Not so, according to Kisumu Town West MP John Olago-Aluoch. Mr Aluoch claims for over two years now he has been complaining to the firm about "extremely poor" mobile network over St Pauls-Riat Hills, Kisumu, but believe it or not, nothing has been done about it. This, he says, is despite the fact that their engineering complex is situated only 2km further up the hill at Kiboswa. "Whenever I am in that part of my constituency, I tell callers to call later because I cannot hear them well," laments mheshimiwa.

DON’T YOU FORGET

Did Orange Kenya revive customer’s dead lines?

On November 24, last year, Orange Kenya customer HR Shah accused the company of ‘not being bothered’ to revive his dead telephone lines (numbers 4181072 and 4183041). He claimed to have reported the matter to Orange several times, but no action was taken.

Despite the lines being dysfunctional, Mr Shah claimed he was still being sent bills by Orange without fail. "What am I supposed to do with the bills? If I do not pay by the due date, what will you do - disconnect already dead lines?" he asked then.

He pleaded with the company’s CEO Mickael Ghossein to intervene and ensure that the lines were reconnected. Did this happen, Mr Ghossein?

Right of Reply


Vandals behind Utawala estate’s foul smell

This is a response to an article by Kimani Ruo appearing in the PointBlank column of January 25 titled, JKIA’s foul smell flies to Utawala. I would like to inform Mr Ruo that the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) carried out an investigation and found out that some sewer manholes had been vandalised and blocked with stones near Utawala.

This resulted in the overflowing of the sewerage. Our team, together with Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company (NW&SC) incurred huge costs due to this criminal vandalism that inconvenienced all stakeholders. KAA and NW&SC had to hire an excavator to dig up and break the section to unblock the sewer and repair it.

As part of our corporate social responsibility and agreement with the NW&SC, we allow residents whose land is on the sewage line to connect free of charge with prior approval from NW&SC.

While we have intensified patrols, I appeal through PointBlank, to residents of Utawala to embrace community policing and as law abiding citizens stop or report vandals to KAA Security through telephone number 6611000 ext 5150 .

All parties are losers in this unfortunate incident.

Dominic N Ngigi,

Corporate Affairs Manager,

Kenya Airports Authority


Muthutho to blame for Double ‘O’s Uchumi woes

Thank you Double ‘O’ for your loyalty to Uchumi Supermarkets. Your feedback (Uchumi’s double shopping trouble, September 16, last year) is invaluable in helping us improve our services.

Uchumi Supermarkets prides itself in adhering strictly to the new laws that regulate the sale of alcohol in retail outlets. This has in-turn led to modifications in the operations of our outlets especially in the check-out tills.

The movement of alcohol outside the liquor shop area before payment is restricted so that we can verify the age of the purchaser who must be above 18 years old as is required by the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act 2010.

We would however wish to reassure Double ‘O’ that we do allow adults purchasing items including alcohol to pay for all the items at the liquor store till.

Nduta Waweru,
Uchumi Supermarkets Ltd

Related Topics