If the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) had its ears plugged in cotton wool, the noise emanating from some matatu (public taxis) termini in Nairobi would still blow out its eardrums. Why, two months after Nema made big noise about its ban on noise pollution, the decibels blaring from some matatus at the Buru Buru shopping centre and from giant speakers of a popular pub on Kenyatta Avenue can silence any orders from the authority. A spot check by The Standard around Nairobi revealed that either Nema has insulated its offices against the noise or the ban was sheer bravado, lacking any will to enforce.
On a hot Friday afternoon, along the dusty Landhies Road and Race Course Road junction, touts shout, bang bodies of matatus from which emanate booming music. A few metres away is a huge sole loud speaker producing loud music and besides it is a shelf full of music CDs and tapes. On the microphone is Mrs Anne Angatia, a preacher at Baptist Church, Banana. She had got a week’s license from Nema, at Sh2,000, that just expired but she said she had to continue working.