Filthy filthy Ongata Rongai

Ongata Rongai is a settlement in Kenya's Rift valley province located between the Kaputei plains and the Western slopes of the Ngong hills all within Kajiado County. It is a fast developing residential urban area about 17 kilometres South of Nairobi. Spanning 16.5 square kilometers with a current  a population of 35,000 according to the 1999 National Census but current estimates are between  66,042 and 147,000 (According to the Mars group website Kajiado North District had a total of 105,411 registered voters in the March 2013 elections majority who were in Ongata Rongai). 

Ongata Rongai started in the late 1950's as a stone mining township in present day Kware (quarry) area of Rongai. As a local satellite urban centre, it owes its existence to proximity to Nairobi thus giving it a location advantage. It thus boasts of hosting almost all the supermarket chains including Tuskys (2 stores),Uchumi, Tumaini, Clean shelf and other smaller brand super markets and whole sales shops. All major banks including KCB, Barclays, Equity, Co-op, Family, I&M, National and a host of other micro finance institutions firms have their presence firmly on board. In terms of Universities there is African Nazerene, Marist University, Maxwell University and a host of other middle level colleges. All major hospitals including Nairobi women’s, Garlands, Getrudes, Meridian, Agakhan and very lately the Doctors plaza exist among others. There are numerous advocates and commissioner of oaths attracted by the conveyance transactions that happen in Rongai. Eateries, bars, barbershops, saloons are to be found in every corner of this town.

Ongata Rongai is mainly a four area zone town: Ongata Rongai town hub is to the east, Nkoroi which is mainly a upper class section to the west, Kandisi a semi-rural zone to the south and Kware  a slum to the north. There only exists one main tarmarked road in the area. Magadi road that runs from Bomas all the way to Magadi soda company (History has it that the road was only in good order when Magadi soda company used to do maintenance works on the road). All other access roads in the area are untarmacked. Water is normally sourced from boreholes. Electricity supply is not regular (blackouts is a lifestyle). Presently the town suffers from unchecked animal keeping and settlements encroaching. Solid waste management doesn’t exist at all.

Rongai as is commonly known is the dormitory of Nairobi city. Everyone seems to retire to it at night. The population given at the beginning of this write up must be very conservative. Unfortunately, I am not able to get the exact number of people or a near estimate of the people residing in this town. I have lived in Rongai for over five years now and I can tell you for free, for a town with only one tarmacked road……..it is bursting at its seams. The haphazard uncontrolled development is causing a strain on the meager resources and creating damage that might never be reversed.

Let me introduce you to traffic jams. This town experiences traffic jams at any particular time either to or from Nairobi or both ways. It dosen’t matter .I have been in the traffic at 6.00 a.m, 8.00a.m, 10.00a.m, 4.00 p.m, 9.00 p.m, 11.00 p.m and even shocker 2.00 p.m. In other words when you leave Rongai or Nairobi to Town or Rongai be very prepared you can spend anything from 30 minutes to 7 hours(my record, this is enough time to drive to Nyeri 200 kilometres away have a cup of tea at home and come back to Nairobi). The most notorious spots include Kware market –Tuskys-Stage one(on our only tarmacked road), Multi media-Banda school, Bomas-Banda. Am told of people who leave Rongai at 4.00 a.m only to be in the office at 4.30 a.m but if they left at 5.00 a.m sometimes they get to the offce at 8.00 a.m.Every minute counts.

Dirt (Note this is titled filthy filthyOngata Rongai). Am shocked every time I hear there is a county council that exists in this town or CEO's of blue chip organizations and permanent secretaries who reside in Rongai. If you want to see a town that collects garbage from its residents then dumps it on the road side in the road drainage system, welcome to Ongata Rongai. It is the filthiest of towns. And the market at Kware stage makes its worse all its refuse is dumped right in the middle of our only tarmacked road- poor Magadi road. When it rains the refuse is mashed up soggy with the water and then the pungent smell coming from it-I have fainted-. The last time I saw the refuse being collected was during the period in which the governor of Kajiado County was being sworn in and the day retired President Kibaki gave a charter to Maxwel university(even our dear Magadi road was  given a face lift).

When it rains, like it for the last month or so, please don’t visit this town. All feeder roads are earth roads. Hence they have craters (politely known as pot holes in developed towns) and dams that are anything from half a meter to a meter dip. To own a car in this town is a disaster. The feeder roads are terrible, terrible, and terrible. To drive on craters and in dams that are half a meter deep requires immense skill and time so you need to rise earlier than usual to navigate them. This does not spare our only tarmacked road-Magadi road. The snarl up in traffic it creates because of these craters especially at the area near Lunar petrol station is just out of any imagination.

This town is also the dustiest/dirtiest you have ever seen. Mostly due to the same untarmacked roads and the movement of vehicles, motor bikes, donkeys, humans. Name it, the dust is everywhere. If you walk from Kware market to Tuskys which is a distance of about a 100 meters you look like you have been wearing the same shoes for 5years. Add that to the filth on the roads. Total disaster.

I sympathize with those who have heavily invested in this area. There was an article on the Daily Nation on October 18^th 2012 namely “Investors shun Ongata Rongai” and from my explanation above you can guess why. When roads don’t work, blackouts are the norm, garbage remains uncollected and you can spend a total of 7 hours on a 17 kilometres stretch of road you understand why any serious investor would want nothing to do with you. In fact if I were them, I would start divesting yesterday. 

Sojourner

My research was heavily borrowed from Wikipedia and a paper presented at the 47th ISOCARP Congress 2011 titled “Planning challenge of Karen and Ongata-Ronga peripheral locations “By Kazungu ,Gitau & Gichuru.