Friday, August 21, 2009

A/c No 2399078-02 & the ongoing power rationing

My cousin's place (at the above account number), suffers from the 'scheduled' power cuts on Tuesdays, Thursdays and recently Saturday was added recently to the usual 2 days of rationing. All this is highly inconvenient, but, in this country, this is not a problem for the various service providers. In fact, they couldn't care less!

This morning, we suddenly lost power, again. This would be the second day running. Therefore, we rang the emergency to ask why this was so as it was not the scheduled day of 'rationing'. The emergency, when they answered, could not explain why we were having an outage. So, we rang some other numbers but all of them went un-answered except for one and when she was told of our predicament, said that we should ring emergency. When we told her that we had already done that and that they could not give us an explanation and that was the reason we were ringing her. She promptly told us that the number we were ringing was her private one and cut us off. That number had been given to me by one of her colleagues in Mombasa.

Soon after being rebuffed by her, we got our power back and one wonders how long this awful and unpredictable power rationing is going to go on for.

Yesterday, another friend of mine who has the same days of rationing as my cousin but lives on Sports Road, never had the power go off the entire day. It was quite a boon for her, but, she was very insecure about it all the same - that the thing would go off anytime since the power guys don't have any strict timing that they adhere, to.

Oh yes, they say, for cosmetic purposes, the it will go from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm, but they do not always stick to those timings.

Every 'service' provider in this country announces one thing and practices something else altogether. No wonder we do not take them seriously.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

RE: Your Ref: KACC/INV. 6/10/ Vol.III/ (102) AND NOW (113) - 21190 - RE: NOISE POLLUTION - ATTN: P.M MWANGI 'ndc' (K)

I've been in receipt of a response to my email regarding this issue since the beginning of August, telling me that I should contact the PPO and the NEMA offices for intervention regarding the persistent and continuous noise and subsequent harassment by the neighbours.
This email is an answer to the latest missive ( Ref.-113), from KACC. Since I last wrote, I've been inundated by noise nearly every other day thanks to there being a wedding season in Coast Province which usually happens every year just before Ramadhan. Add to this, the religious noises that we have to put up with everyday from both the Muslims and the Christians. Life assumes an intolerable agony and despite sending these emails to the NEMA, NOBODY is doing anything about these issues.

In fact, the latest noise and by extension harassment issue is on going as I write this and it involves Councillor Kushe who is also a neighbour. If the officer at KACC will notice, this particular email has also been sent to the Ministry of Local Government under whom this Council Estate falls as well as the 'complaints' section (email) of the Kenya Police. This later, while I got it from their Web page, always bounces. One wonders, why?

And despite calling numerous senior police officers when the noise is on going, results in absolutely nothing. Therefore, one thinks in terms of corruption which is definitely supposed to be dealt with by KACC. It is this last response from our so-called cops, that results in me writing these emails. Their attitude smacks of corruption!

Since yesterday evening, Councillor Kushe's place has been celebrating his daughter's wedding in the most offensive (to the neighbours), way. They have been having loud music playing the whole night and despite trying to first talk to them to reduce the volume, which resulted in them ignoring my calls. I then, tried calling the various officers including a senior officer, Mr. Lumumba, to please take some action as I could not sleep. Nothing doing! They all claimed that they were sending somebody, but, nobody came.

These offensive people only stopped in the morning at around 5.15 am when the call to morning prayer was given. Immediately, the prayer was over at around 5.45 am, some kids with a drum started drumming with complete impunity and disregard for the neighbours who had not slept the whole night, thanks to them and were trying to get some shut eye, for a couple of hours to be able to function for the rest of the day without feeling like zombies. They paid no attention to my pleas, and in fact, have been setting off the car alarm and ringing my doorbell and then running away. It's still going on....

Is there ever going to be any action taken or is the buck going to be continued to be passed along, where, nothing gets done?

As soon as cops in this country hear a politicians name, they are very averse to doing anything to stop whatever misdemeanor that one is complaining about. Why? Are our 3rd class politicians above the law? If this is the case, then, it's the only country where it is so.

Strange rationing in Nairobi

As mentioned before, I have family and friends in Nairobi who send me frantic messages about the water situation there.

Since my last email on 6th August regarding this issue, the Parklands/Highridge area suddenly started getting water, but, now the Nairobi Water Company has resumed it's sleepy state and gone into never-never land, again, for they have been without water for the past 3 to 4 days.

Can they please stick to a strict rationing? Meaning that when they say that a certain area is going to get water from this time to this time and on a particular day/s, the residents there really do get the water which applies to everywhere in this country?

We can all sympathize with the fact that we're all suffering from a limited water supply, but, if managed properly, these umpteen outfits which have sprouted up like mushrooms all over the country, can effectively manage our scant water resources. But, of course, like everything else in this lawless country none of these outfits are accountable and work without the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

So, will this email have any positive effect on the Nairobi Water Company? Yet to be seen....
I'll know about this from my various contacts, Insha'Allah, as well as when I come there, soon, to spend the holy month of Ramadhan. I just hope and pray that they (the Water companies), are not going to collude together during this month to deprive us of this much needed and life giving resource.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Nairobi's water situation....

Since I have family in Nairobi, I get to know a lot about the horrors they have to go through to avail water for themselves as well as pay their phantom water bills which arrive in their post boxes every month without fail....., unlike the water they are charging the residents, for.

It has now been MONTHS since they are having to buy water, yet, some places in Nairobi are overflowing with the precious stuff. One example being the ex-Highridge Teacher's Training College in the Highridge/Parklands area.

While the whole area goes without water, this 'college's' water tank is overflowing! How come, nobody has done anything about it? And is the neighbourhood paying for all this water going to waste, instead of for themselves, thanks to the incompetence of the Nairobi Water Company....? Do they have an explanation for this?

Btw, Ramadhan is nearly round the corner and are the Muslims who live in this neighbourhood going to do without water 24 hours..., not just in the daytime?