Flashback: City Council toilets were dirtier than hell, but free of charge

That most banks and supermarkets don't have toilets for clients was not a pressing issue back in the day when Nairobi was cleaned at night.

See, the then City Council of Nairobi had public toilets galore in every estate, the city centre including slums. The Kanjo cleaner often arrived in the morning and cleaned the previous day's mess as the toilets also had a public water point where the precious commodity was sold for Sh5 for a 20-litre mtungi.

The only grouse with Kanjo toilets was that ambitious residents long removed the doors and doing a long drop meant being exposed hadharani in any of the dozen rows of room.

Then there were those who did their thing along the corridor making hop, skip and jump a hazard of Kanjo toilets, which were grabbed in the late 1990s and replaced with exhibition stalls.

Today you have to pay in Nairobi when the call of nature summons. For Sh10 per visit, you get access to a fairly clean toilet that has a door (phew!), a small roll of tissue paper and water to clean your hands, provided you don't ask too many questions about the source of the brownish water.

For peeps who need more toilet paper to handle their business, the toilet 'manager' will slap you with an extra Sh5 fee and a smirk order not to clog the system.

What's more, you can get a few sweets and njugu outside the public toilet facility where brave entrepreneurs who can withstand deadly odours have set up tuck shops.

And for those who don't have reliable bathrooms at home, some public toilets also have bathrooms where you can take a quick shower, but at an extra fee of course.