Quagmire that is Tassia estate in Embakasi

 By Nunn Asa

Investors who spent millions to purchase homes at Tassia estate in Embakasi were happy to live not so far from the city centre.

The beauty and joy of owning a home here has however been dampened by the recurrent rains which make life a nightmare.

The once beautiful Tassia Estate has been turned into a soggy quagmire, making life difficult for the residents.

Even as the rainy seasons ended, poor drainage within the estate has made life difficult for the residents who have been left wishing  the rains never return.

Temporary dams created by the rains have left residents marooned and rendered the access roads within the beautiful estate impassable and motorists are forced to leave their cars at home and walk through the murky waters.  

Homeless

A resident, Musa Mainga, recounts how he was momentarily rendered homeless by the flooding.

“Recently, I returned home one afternoon from work just as, heavy rains had started pounding the area. I found the feeder road connecting Outer ring Road to the estate heavily flooded. I could not enter my house.

“I had left work around 5:30pm that afternoon but spent several hours in traffic. When I got around Spinners Bar, it was already flooded. I could not use my car. As water levels had risen above the car’s bonnet. I had to trek all the way home,” he said.

The Poor drainage in Tassia has rendered its roads impassable and according to residents, rogue contractors haven’t made the situation any better as they are busy dumping black cotton soil from the construction site blocking roads and this complicates the already dire situation.

To the residents of Tassia, business is never as usual whenever it rains ponder.

Irene Akinyi, another resident says movement in the area becomes almost paralysed when it rains as floods literally begin at one’s doorstep.

According to Ms Akinyi, this flooding is as a result of poor planning by private developers and local authorities.

Akinyi says Nairobi City Council authorities have abrogated their role and allowed developers to divert drainage channels where storm waters used to drain.

The angry residents say instead of Nairobi City Council intervening, its officers  are busy issuing permits and investors are building haphazardly without due regard to what happens in case of floods.

“Tassia estate is rapidly expanding but poor planning is responsible for the floods. People buy land, construct buildings but do not consider constructing proper drainage systems,” says Ms Akinyi.

Huge dams around abandoned construction sites have been posing great danger to the residents especially children who are fond of playing around these dams.

Drowning

During the heavy downpour experienced early this year, a class six boy at the Deska Junior School in Tassia was reported dead after drowning in one of the abandoned construction sites as he played with friends.

 George Owino Ogutu,a watchman at a nearby construction site, told The County Weekly , he heard screams emanating from an abandoned construction.

On arrival he found the victim’s family members desperately in search of their son’s body.

“When I saw their efforts bearing no fruits, I took the initiative and dived into the ‘dam’ to assist,” says Mr Owino as he points at the dam where the boy drowned. Residents say they wonder why the City Council of Nairobi officials aren’t keen in taking this matters into consideration and hold responsible contractors and developers who leave sites in such state.

They argue there is no logic in paying rates to the council yet the state of the infrastructure remains pathetic.

Responsibility

The flooded areas have left residents living in fear of water borne diseases and fears of water logged houses collapsing.

The city council on Nairobi however says that land around Tassia estate belongs to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which is a private developer who should be responsible for the infrastructure of the area.

The council’s Director of Planning Tom Odongo told the County Weekly that some encroachers had illegally trespassed on NSSF land and the City Council has been working to ensure proper planning and reorganization of the estate.

 “We are looking into the situation though NSSF also has a responsibility to the people by ensuring thir activities do not put people’s lives at risk,” says Mr Odongo.