Monday, April 27, 2009

Noise in the name of functions and religion - 38th reminder to NEMA and others concerned....

Imagine a world where there is incessant noise of some kind of another all day long and even part of the night, add to this various kinds of air pollution and the people responsible for all these atrocities as well as the supposed law upholders, all being utterly insolent and unfeeling when told to do something about it.

This is what I and all of my neighbourhood have to put up with every single day and most weekend nights, too.

As enumerated umpteen times previously, there are the daily religious rackets made my the neighbourhood mosque and church or rather the outfit that hires the MWA Hall every workday lunch times. Then, of late (and this is also off and on various times in a year!), one of the questionably acquired plots within the estate and 'developed' into a multistorey block of flats, by a private 'developer', keeps on digging a borehole every few months despite having tried this countless times since he 'developed' this plot in 1995!

Despite, not having been successful, he still insists of digging another one around the same area where he had earlier been unsuccessful. And the irony is that there is a borehole dug using CDF money within meters of where this new one is being dug. So, everyday starting from early morning till late in the evening including weekends, there is the noise from this machine doing the digging. Not to mention that both these boreholes are near the septic tank.

There is also the trucks that arrive here in plenty bringing building materials for the 'road' that our Council has decided to make for us. It does not matter that the cause of the messed up earlier road still exists. The infamous truck, tractor, junk yard and garage that belongs to Nisha Printers/Shimanzi Enterprises has been responsible for the degradation of the road thanks to their monsters coming and going through the estate. These people are breaking every imaginable traffic, environmental and Municipal by-laws by being allowed to still exist there. There is also another block of flats next to this truck park and which is all part of a road reserve, but our lawless and corrupt Council allocated this to Nisha Printers in the mid-1990s.

So, while our Council is, as usual, trying to make a so-called road (which is so narrow that only one car at a time can pass), they have not deemed it fit to first deal with the cause of the damaged road in the first place and it will be business as usual as soon as this road is 'made'. The Council also couldn't care less for the residents' inconveniences
while they are building this 'road'. Their trucks just dump sand, stones, etc., any place they like with no thought given to accessibility for the residents and their cars, if any.

Then, over weekends starting Friday nights, people hire the MWA Hall for their private functions and these are ALWAYS very loud and terrible. The only people who might be enjoying this racket are probably the attendees. Definitely NOT, the neighbourhood which also includes two hospitals. One right next door to this hall, the Aga Khan Hospital and a little bit further but within hearing distance; Pandya Memorial.

Calling the police is an exercise in futility because, they will give you the following replies, IF they answer the phone.....!

1. As soon as they hear the word noise, they hang up!

2. Or, the officer answering will give you the impression that they are sending somebody out there in minutes and even if you wait half an hour there will be no reduction in the decibels.

This, of course, will cause you to ring them, again... which results in the following....

3. Please, have patience, they are coming.... or

4. They have a permit and therefore according to these moronic cops they translate this into being allowed to make noise. NOT, that the permit is to hold the function and not make noise that will disturb the entire residential area!

5. We are back to the bad old days of cops telling us that they don't have vehicles and therefore they are coming walking. Now, regarding this, it does not take a couple of fit cops to walk the distance from Central Police to the MWA Hall hours on end. This distance can be covered is less than half an hour! Yet, these cops want us to believe that it takes them longer.

Is it because they are waiting for the 'natural' time of the end of the function which is till nearly midnight?

Also, I don't exactly know who is the moron out there who gives these permits to allow noisy functions to be held in the middle of residential areas and next to hospitals with complete impunity. But, he/she, seems to care less (typical of our 'officialdom' of late!), about the effects of sleeplessness and noise on the human psyche.

There is also nobody at the hall to regulate the level of noise, either, therefore the merry makers set up huge speakers near open doors and at decibel levels which can damage the ears. These women (they are mostly Arab and Waswahili), who seem to enjoy this racket and who go to such functions to supposedly celebrate one of their compatriot's wedding.

Last Friday and last night were cases in point. The cops when called including OCS Njeru, couldn't be bothered to respond and either kept hanging up their phones or trying to make me believe that they were sending officers over when no such thing ever happened and these horrors continued their racket till well after 11.00 pm!

This is another point where our law and justice is just a name! There are no such things in operation in this country any longer. We, the public, who are supposed to have 'elected' these 'officials' into office are least interested in serving us. The only thing they are interested in is the hefty pay-check at the end of every month for which they are also refusing to pay a tax like every citizen. We truly have the most useless, bloated and ineffective government, ever!!!!

And when will this impunity ever end....? And law, order and justice prevail?

No comments: