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| Improving waste disposal will discourage slumming. |
There is a black paper bag near
the gate to our house. Four days now and the county council cleaning staff
have not identified it. The ammonia being emitted there cannot sustain a
sensitive stomach. I hope the garbage collectors will see it today. One other time the same happened to a dog that had been
knocked somewhere and brought on the road in the night by someone. The first
few cars missed the poor corpse but when the traffic neared and vehicles
took to hurry, the bones were breaking after every pass. The day was sunny and
the smell chocked. Now, on Ring Road Kilimani Road are scattered clothing
pieces surely from a tailoring premise. They were disposed on that clean road
that Kiberians walk along cherishing the city life before their steps are
swallowed up in the muddy paths as they go deep into their houses.
Talking about environment is
talking about many things. What you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste should be
able to make yourself function optimally. The need to rise against any
alteration in the senses calls for common sense.
Igunza is the name of our elder cousin
whom we nick-named Abdalla. We feared him because of the power of his rod. He
had the right-whoever gave him the right is unknown-to channel us to discipline
with or without the consent of my mother whom I lived with in the rural home. He
however had his main area of disciplining us that would open his empire over
all that were young in the big extended family. It was his duty to ensure that
the green compound was not littered by the leaves of guava, avocado and blue
gum trees despite the all through falling. If we saw what he did, we were
expected to follow without being told.
When he came and found us
playing, he would disrupt the game by finding pleasure in easily catching up
with us when we ran to hide and cane us on the buttocks like a teacher before
we fell at his mercy and picked the leaves in cries. You could not have the guts to be
rude at the site of the mudondo rod.
It never broke and was heavy though thin. We hold no grudges but thank him for
being such a powerful cousin. I will send him sugar for the good old times.
It all starts at home. If one is
not endowed with the sense of environmental sensitiveness as he steps out of
the home’s gate, be sure the person will come in having polluted the
environment a big deal.
Consider this small test. After
disclosing bubble gum, where do you keep the packing nylon? How do you dispose
the gum when its no longer tasty? If you find yourself doubting a thing, or
considering the best answer because you
did it just for once, you are wanting. We were sitting in the church the other
day for a Bible study when the leading pastor touched an attached gum at the
lower side of the seat. He groaned and we continued. A congregant did that! Let
alone in schools and offices, buses and buildings and all the other places of
mentioning. At the bed too? I used to spat it while walking and hit the
tasteless gum like a footballer no matter where it will land. Chewing gum is
such an issue that the government of Singapore had to ban it for a while.
We are failing to take
responsibility of our environment because we think that the effects are not forth
coming or will be of a less effect. I
talked about actions that are ignorantly spearheaded because tomorrow would not
be the judgment day in the blog, ‘Because Tomorrow is not the Day’. Millenium
Development goals are ideas of the elites and spread to the elites. No one in
Kawangware slums knows a thing about global warming in the desired magnitude.
Thinking that Runda inhabitants know it better, why are their locomotives
emitting too much carbon more than a Mathare slum household that uses charcoal and
paraffin for cooking?
The emergence of bedbug menace in
estates, a Semite related malady was first associated with poor hygiene in the
houses. Until the problem grew worse that reasons shifted. In campus, the
problem was severe in male hostels than female ones. Few men mop their floors
daily. They have a single sheet and blanket. They sit, eat, play and read from the
bed. The towel takes long to be washed. It still stands that poor hygiene encourages
the breeding and spreading of bedbugs as lice would exhibit to a person who
fails to clean one’s inner-wears on a routine basis. This is
common in high school where showering is once a week and considering there is a
trip to attend. The left hand has always been used as a taste gauge where it immerses
in the groins and brought near the nose to determine the intensity of riko. That
smell… Riko is the presence of black dirt patches that can be seen around the
neck or at the back between shoulders when a person fails to clean oneself
thoroughly. The prophet encourages cleanliness. If your armpits and anus are
not as clean as they should be, the temple of the Lord is corrupt.
Proper waste (liquid, solid and
gaseous waste) disposal is taught in schools, gets examined and forgotten in
the end. Why is it that day in, day out schools have manual time? Why can’t the
students practice an all time proper waste disposal manners? Of all the wastes
disposed, paper takes lead in the compound. In primary, we used to light fire
each early morning to burn them as we warmed ourselves. This was after moving
to grade seven. In lower grades, prefects expected you to carry two-hand-full
litter. There was a checking point and the one who had less litter could not
escape the blue gum strokes. This was the main thing that one wished to be a prefect. My system has been of strokes!
The Earth belongs to God and we never cease to amaze the creator. I
decided to buy the yellow big paper bag at Mikindani so that fellow comrades on
trip would dispose their madafu husks in one place that will be taken to a
compost site. First, a friend thought of me as a pretender, failing to be
realistic. He took the paper bag to wrap his coconuts in asking what the role of
county government was. I had no might for war. Another asked me whether I
listen to myself before speaking when I shouted that throwing a thing out of
the window was illegal. The co-driver had requested them to throw husks away
for they were making the bus dirty. Aiiiiiii! Why should I be too righteous?
There may be no facilities or
systems that encourage proper waste disposal. Dustbins in Kenyan buses were opposed without reason. Sugar cane consumers are left to use the windows to get rid of wastes. Buy a banana on the way and you
will hardly see a container of disposal. Only in the town center will you meet
them. Walk towards Gikomba and you will soon forget you were in a clean combed
environment. Winny had it tough to dispose an ice-cube nylon in Kahawa because
she knew I’d complain if she threw it anyhow. She was very uncomfortable and
she handed it to me. Beside was a fruit stall and I guess the woman did not
like when I added it to the peelings in the crate. If you have no place to carry the waste, consume
it from the stall and let it there. Catch a poor folk throwing dirt on the road and you
will have no upper hand over the person. The women who sell getheri and vegetables only throw the rotting remnants and wastes
on the road. Some wait for the rain and let them in the flowing water as others
open toilets to flow alongside. If they are aware of their fault, then they do
not know about it well enough to feel guilt. In Norway, there are machines on
the streets that recycle items as plastic bottles for money or for donation.
Being sensitive to the
environment opens you to other higher thinking and acting. For the love of art
and clean environment, people have invested their skills in designing beautiful
compounds. This can also be seen in people’s houses. Some you’ll enter and
admire everything.
The care you offer to the
environment will promote good health and peace that is key to discovery of
other higher life wants like improved thinking. We do not yet have a culture
that calls for selflessness in reacting to such issues. It still marvels some well
adorned women to see whites picking dirt in the city center to dispose in the
litter bins. The moment the white man takes to the slums and off murram road
where the women live, reality hits him and goes back ready to donate for the
poor folks.
We can be having poor housing in slums but a serene and clean
environment will lead to change in face and start up of a totally new
environment that will kick out the name 'slum'. Isn't the careless rubbish throw
that cause sewerage blocks and discourage free flow of water? Aren't the roads
full of nylon because of our carelessness? Mind not about the running taps and
when the water will be scarce, complain not. Let us be poor yes, but don’t
allow yourself to live in a dirty environment.
It needs not be an expensive professional
input to enhance a wonderful aura as seen in rich environments. Simple doings
like cultivation of flowers around the balcony in portable containers,
encouraging children to do away with any dirt to the bins, minding about the
volumes of electronic devises, leaving toilets as clean as found, voluntary cleaning sessions, and others as you will add will improve our immediate environment that will make us more of humans than animals. Destiny is your own
creation. Be creative enough to create what you deserve.
If you are careless with the
environment, you will find yourself where you deserve. The diary won’t allow
you to care less.
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