Inconveniences by the Nairobi Water Company

'Afternoon!

Late this morning at about 11.20 am, we were going to collect my nephew from his school, Montessori Learning Centre on Gravellia Grove and found a closed pick-up KAU 849G, blocking our road. And this is to put it mildly!

On the other side of this car there was an earth mover digging a ditch across the road with the usual layabouts hanging around. It was difficult to figure out the difference between employees of the Nairobi Water Company and these layabouts as there was very little physical difference to show between the two. They were collectively and with little care watching this one guy in the earth mover calmly and insolently digging up the road.

It would seem that moronic and insolent behaviour pervades our so-called service providers, countrywide! I reach this conclusion for the following reasons....

1. At no place had a notice been put up earlier to warn the residents and others using this road that it would be closed to traffic. When we had passed there earlier to drop my nephew off we had found no warning that we would have a problem when picking him up, later.

2. I asked the residents who passed by, if they had been informed of this inconvenience, and they all told me the same thing, NO!

3. This being a Saturday and a half working day, and a long weekend where none of these people are going to work till Tuesday, next week, what was/is the urgency to block access to this road and it's many residences?

4. Why can't these 'service' providers be more organized and inform people in advance so they can plan their lives and activities in a sane manner? There was another lady who had just a little while before gone out to get something, leaving her small baby at home which needed feeding and on returning, found that these horrors, without any explanation had blocked access to her hungry baby! The only way she could get to it was to cross this uneven and dug up road and being a mother, she braved this to feed her child.

Only very fit people are/were capable of crossing this ditch.

5. When I asked them for an explanation, there was none forthcoming other than, that one of these so-called employees of the Nairobi Water Company (I think), who all seemed to have trouble with their voices, holding up his index finger and mouthing one hour with his lips. We, the public, must also be lip readers, to accommodate these insolent people! And would they really be through with their work in an hour or leave the work half done and disappear for the rest of the long weekend leaving the whole neighbourhood and other road users in a dilemma.

6. Why weren't road notices put up at distances approaching this 'road/water works', to warn the public about what they would encounter further on? And why weren't the resident's informed in good time, in writing, preferably about this inconvenience?

I was also told by many of the passers-by that this insolent behaviour on the part of 'officialdom' is quite common in Nairobi. Why?

Only God, it seems, can help us against such people in our country.