Children of a lesser God? In Ruiru, locals pay out of pocket to get roads, drainage fixed

“The rich class in Kiambu is usually just a phone call away from getting things done for them by the county government unlike us,” laments Benson Gitau.

In September 2019, the 42-year-old self-employed electrical engineer desperately wanted to meet his area Member of Parliament over poor drainage systems, raw sewage, garbage collection and bad roads. However, his efforts to reach him bore no fruit.

The young father and resident of Wataalam, Biashara Ward in Ruiru Constituency, then made his way to Parliament Buildings but, again, was unable to secure an appointment.

Instead, he says, Parliament police arrested him for trespassing after which they handed him over to Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) who held him incommunicado for eight days.

“I also wanted to remind him that the police post built in my area has encroached on a public road,” he says, adding that he is passionate about community development.

“Our teacher used to tell us that an engineer must always solve problems affecting the community.”

Mr Gitau was later released and terrorism charges dropped but this did not kill his spirit.

He has now rounded up all residents interested in seeing things change for the better.

“People like us, the hustlers of Kiambu, have to always beg to be served and maybe when we come together we can accomplish more.”

Set up own initiative

This is how Hilton Residential Infrastructure Development Panel was born.

It is a grassroots initiative with over 200 households where Mr Gitau serves as the coordinator.  

The panel came up with a detailed project proposal which it presented to the county but is yet to receive any response.

The proposal contains development solutions suggested by residents in areas like drainage, garbage collection, youth empowerment, agriculture, and street lighting among other issues.

Mr Gitau also claims that a group of well-connected people in the area who are in bed with the county government are always prioritised at the expense of everyone else.

Grabbing of Road Reserves

An letter seen by Nation from his committee to the County Government of Kiambu on February 29 the same year raised concerns over several attempts to grab the road that links Gospel and Mla Chake roads in Ruiru.

According to the panel, unknown people erected beacons on the said road which raised eyebrows.

Speaking to the Nation on the phone, Mr Peter Kabue, the secretary of the panel, says that they alerted the county government but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

“The land used to build some of the big business and administrative entities in Wataalam was hived off from a public road, a subsidiary of the super-highway, Eastern by-pass,” he says.

The residents say that such ills going unchecked have emboldened other players, including some churches and smaller businessmen, to join the land encroachment bandwagon. 

The National Lands Commission, National Environment Management Authority (Nema) and Kiambu County director of environment were all notified officially by the panel but nothing has been done to date.

The letter was titled ''Grabbing of Road Reserves''. All the bodies acknowledged receipt of the official letters and even stamped them but no action has been taken to date, he says.

Residents are also complaining of poor drainage systems that frequently burst and flood roads, with water making its way into their homes when it rains.

“With rains upon us, it feels like we are living in a swamp as all the water flows to settle in this valley,” he told the Nation. 

No help

They say their issues have been dragging along the county corridors for six years. Eventually, they resorted to dipping into their pockets to sort out some of these problems.

Each household first parted with Sh200 for development and garbage collection. They then contributed Sh1,000 each to hire an excavator.

“Our then roads CEC John Mugwe showed up for moral support with an extra excavator.”

A second letter dated  November 12 last year was sent to Governor James Nyoro, who took over from Ferdinand Waititu in January last year, with hopes that he would come to their aid.

In the panel’s own words, they hoped that a PhD holder and agricultural expert like the governor would help fix this but, unfortunately, he is yet to look their way.

The outpouring of pain and emotion due to the miserable, dilapidated state of feeder roads in their area seems not to persuade the county government to act.

“The drainage issue has become an insurmountable obstacle to our business progress,” reads the letter.

The Nation reached out to Mr James Maina, the then CEC of Roads in Kiambu County who was in charge of the project, but recently moved to Nairobi county.

“I was in office for only six months and, therefore, could not do much,” he said.

“I remember the projects in Wataalam were taken over by the County Urban Office under the municipality, ask them,” Mr Maina said.

Kiambu County CEC for Lands and Physical Planning  Engineer Sam Mugo, whom we established took over the project, declined to comment on the matter.

Mr Gitau believes that the problems they face have not gone away permanently because there is lack of consistency and a lot of bureaucracy within the county government.

“We have had over six CECs since the last General Election,” he said.

Still, he hopes this worthy fight will end soon so that he can focus on raising his children in a better place.