By IMMACULATE WAIRIMU
Do you wake up in the morning feeling tired
and sickly? Have you changed your mattress several times because your
doctor keeps advising that the nausea and backache could be caused by
ageing bedding?
Stop wasting money on
new mattresses and look around your home. That nagging headache could
be caused by where you live — the house you live in, particularly.
You
are not alone, though, because many more Kenyans live in houses that
are, in the words of Nairobi-based architect Erastus Omil Abonyo,
“sickly”.
Mr Abonyo, a lecturer at
the department of architecture, University of Nairobi, uses that word to
describe buildings that make their occupants experience acute health
and comfort problems, and whose numbers are on the rise in Nairobi.
“Many
Kenyans, in the quest to save a penny, live in badly built houses,”
says Mr Abonyo. “Most of the houses are rental apartments that lack
natural lighting, have poor quality indoor air, and have narrow walkways
and staircases that have to be lit throughout the day.”
The
houses, in the true sense of the word, are sickly, but as long as they
cost Sh10,000 or below to rent for a month, they will always have
tenants who do not know the health risks they expose themselves to every
time they walk into their homes.
CHEAP HOUSES
For
many Kenyans, iron sheet slum dwellings are the epitome of bad living,
but Mr Abonyo says that is no longer the case as “most of the highrise
buildings” coming up in middle-class estates are nothing but a variation
of a “dangerous urban slum”.
This is
because, as developers chase maximum profits, they are trying to
squeeze in as many units as possible within a flat, hence affecting both
the health profile and integrity of their structures.
That
is why once revered neighbourhoods like Westlands and Buru Buru in
Nairobi are losing face, says Mr Abonyo. Buru Buru, to many people who
lived in the city in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, was once the
personification of excellent, refined and structured middle-class
living, but that is no more and developers have put up all manner of
unplanned structures.
The result is that what was designed as a low-density neighbourhood is today one of the most populous zones in the city.
In
Kabete, a once green neighbourhood of the city just a few kilometres
past the sprawling mabati jungle of Kangemi, flats are slowly taking
over, jostling for space and felling the few trees that have remained
standing, like lone, wounded soldiers on a battlefield.
The entire ground floor of this building sank
while still under construction in the Kisauni neighbourhood of Mombasa
two weeks ago. The local authority immediately moved in and demolished
the entire structure. While it is not clear what made the building start
sinking, the risk to the tenant, however, is not just injury as a
result of a collapsing structure, but other ailments like headaches and
respiratory disorders due to, mostly, poor ventilation.
What
worries Mr Abonyo is that, as Nairobi expands, planners are not giving
attention to open spaces, which should also serve as community grounds.
It is not rare to see a row of 10 flats proudly standing
shoulder-to-shoulder, with not even an inch of space between each of
them.
Open spaces are now restricted
to what architects call indoor balconies, while power and clothes lines
elbow each other for breathing space on the tiny, box-like external
balconies that also serve as children’s playgrounds of the modern era.
Parents
would not want to let their children climb down the stairs into the
narrow road downstairs and play football, because that road is unpaved
and also serves as the main drainage line and dumping site for the
entire neighbourhood.
“You might
think that the house you are living in is cheap,” says Mr Abonyo, “but
it isn’t. You delude yourself if you only look at the monthly rent you
are paying, yet the countless trips that you and your coughing and
wheezing children make to hospital, and the electricity you consume to
keep your living area and corridors lit, are also rental expenses. If
you do the math, you might realise that the cost of living in a better,
well-planned and aerated house in lower than the true cost of your
Sh10,000 apartment.”
NO AIR
Living
spaces that are too small, lack adequate fresh air and are dark develop
molds, which could lead to serious health complications like nasal and
sinus congestion, running nose, eye irritation, respiratory problems,
coughing, throat irritation, and sneezing fits.
Houses
that have drainage problems may become damp, leading, again, to
respiratory problems such as asthma, pneumonia, sinusitis, and
bronchitis, says Mr Francis Gichuhi of A4 Architects.
A
lot of mold in buildings comes from excessive moisture on building
elements, mainly walls, roofs and floors, and prevention starts with a
developer hiring architects who will design the building with prevention
of mold in mind.
Ms Diana Nekesa, a Nairobi resident, remembers the many visits she made to doctors because of a nagging chest infection.
“I
thought the constant heaviness in my chest, the coughing, backache, and
headache, and the consistent need to use an inhaler were symptoms of
the asthma the doctor told me was ailing me, until I moved house,” says
the 27-year-old.
“The one-bedroom
rental house I lived in at Mwiki in Kasarani was too restricted in space
and it always seemed like my furniture was competing for space with me.
It also had black mold on the walls behind the furniture and green mold
on the outside walls, and it felt constantly cold. When I got a
spacious alternative in Zimmerman, I immediately moved out, even though I
had to add Sh3,000 to the Sh10,000 I was paying in rent.”
The
reason Ms Nekesa moved house was not in any way related to her health
problem, but a few weeks later she noticed that she did not need to use
her inhaler as often as she did at Mwiki.
“I also felt lighter on my feet, happier, and, of course, healthier!” she says.
In
the wake of a growing urban population, a greater need for housing is
inevitable, hence the economies of scale through highrise buildings that
supply more dwellings per square metre of land.
But
Mr Abonyo says this housing need “has contributed to the mushrooming of
opportunists calling themselves investors, yet a wise investor knows a
building that will require constant repairs and upgrading will not make
economic sense”.
In the years gone
by, this problem was restricted to the dustier neighbourhoods of Nairobi
like Kayole, Umoja, Githurai and Eastleigh, but that is no longer the
case. Previously clean neighbourhoods like South B, South C and Lang’ata
have joined the fray, and tenants keep complaining of poor drainage,
clogged toilets, sinks that leak waste back into the house, taps that
run with muddy water, and, for those who live on ground floors, flooded
rooms every time it as much as drizzles.
QUALITY STANDARDS
When
a house under construction collapsed in Huruma earlier this year, Mr
Gichuhi of A4 Architects said he expected such other incidents to be
reported across the country in the coming days because he had seen
developers bribe their way through county planning controls in order to
put up houses that did not meet quality standards.
Because
of the huge demand for housing, almost everyone who has a few millions
to spare is putting them in the real estate sector. That, in an ideal
environment, is a good thing. But when the masses are not adequately
policed, rogues easily take over, and that is the situation Kenya is
currently grappling with.
The
Architectural Society of Kenya estimates that 50 per cent of structures
in Nairobi are not up to code as high demand for housing propels
property developers to bypass building regulations to cut costs and
maximise profits.
“We have adequate
laws, by-laws and planning regulations that provide for adequate space,
floor-to-ceiling height, windows, natural lighting and ventilation,”
says Mr Abonyo. “Though the number of building inspectors in the country
may not be enough, institutions mandated with the task are sleeping on
the job.”
FYI
The laws require a developer
to ensure that every habitable room has a window that opens directly to
external air, and which should not be obstructed by another building or
structure less than eight feet away.
Under
the Physical Planning Act, Cap 286 of the laws of Kenya, any person
intending to erect a new building or re-erect an existing one should
comply with the provisions of the existing building code, local
authority by-laws, the physical planning requirements and such
conditions as may be imposed by the approving authority.
This
is in regard to the size, height, shape, appearance and even siting of
such building in order to safeguard, maintain or impose the dignity, or
preserve the amenity and general appearance, of street, square, or
public place.
The Act also dictates
that no person should erect a building in such manner as to provide any
back-to-back dwelling. Back-to-back here includes the whole dwelling or
its habitable portion being not adequately and efficiently
through-ventilated.
The laws require
a developer to ensure that every habitable room has a window that opens
directly to external air, and which should not be obstructed by another
building or structure less than eight feet away.
Each
window should also let in daylight equal to at least one tenth of the
floor area of the room. The habitable rooms should be a minimum of eight
feet in length and not less than 75 square feet.