Investigative Story: How Water Cartels Have Ensured That Nairobians Don’t Get Water for Over a Year

There is an acute shortage of water in Nairobi. Thousands of people are affected and have no one to turn to as the leadership of the day continues to cast a deaf ear.

Water rationing in Nairobi begun 14 months ago. The County Government then announced that the shortage would be ‘temporal’ little did most Nairobian’s know that it would be 14 months and still counting.

The rationing came as a result of water level in the main dam that serves the city, Ndakaini Dam, dropping to below 30 percent.

Most parts of the city have not seen a drop of water ever since and the situation is now getting worse.

“I don’t remember the last time my tap had water. I must have been December 2016,” said Jane Wangoi, a resident at Mlango Kubwa, Mathare Constituency in Nairobi.

Most residents in this area buy water at between 30 shillings to 70 shillings per 20-liter container. “Water is expensive here but it is nowhere to be found. Sometimes we have money but there is no water to buy,” she added.

“Most people in this area haven’t seen water for months,” said Ahmed Abdi from Eastleigh. “Those who are lucky enough to get some, get it for less than 30 minutes every week. Most interesting is the fact that every end of the month, the ‘boys’ from the water company are always reading the meters and collecting money,” he added with a soft laugh.

Water vendors in Eastleigh sell a 20-liter container of water between 30 and 50 shillings with the price going as high as 100 shillings in some of the weekends.

The most hit areas include Mathare, Eastleigh, Baba Dogo, Githurai, Umoja, Kibera and some parts of Westlands.

In 2017, just before the electioneering period, the government through the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, then under CS Eugine Wamalwa announced plans to drill 80 boreholes with Nairobi to boost water supply. The CS appears to have forgotten about the drilling as soon as he finished reading the announcement. Nothing happened.

The then Governor of Nairobi Evans Kidero announced and launched the drilling of some boreholes in Nairobi. The project died immediately it was launched.

Sources have told Soko Directory that there are water cartels within the city who are colluding with officials at Nairobi Counter Water to intentionally switch off the taps so that they can make a kill and then share the proceeds.

“Water is gold in this city. It is a business that is turning people into overnight billionaires. Do you know that the water cartels in this city make between 20 million to 50 million shillings every single day?” said a source with the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company.

According to the source, 60 percent of the water cartels in Nairobi own their own boreholes. To rule the city, the often engineer water shortage across the city in collusion with some unscrupulous city employees so that they can sell their own water at any price they want.

“Water business in this city is not for the small fish. It is for the Tilapia. We the small fish have nothing to do but obey orders. People receive up to one million shillings weekly just to keep the taps dry,” said the source.

The source goes ahead to say that 40 percent of water cartels in Nairobi don’t own any borehole but have literally taken over Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company. In other words, they take the water which is supposed to be distributed to Nairobians, fill their tracks and sell at their own price.

“My friend, these people are powerful. The same way people are becoming billionaires through the garbage industry is this city, so is water,” said the source.

Soko Directory also discovered that most water channel that is supposed to distribute water to areas of Pangani, Mlango Kubwa and Eastleigh have been either diverted or hijacked along the way by cartels.

In Mlango Kubwa, for instance, most water lines have been taken over by people who have connected their own taps and pipes along the road and selling the water to residents.

“I constructed my house in 2015. I connected and paid for the water but my tenants have never seen a drop,” said one of the landlords in the area.

Despite the fact that most of those who have hijacked the pipes are known and transact their businesses during the day, nothing has ever done about them because it is a string that involves officials at the city water body. Most of the receive bribes from these on a daily basis.

Nairobi people have no water. The cartels are determining when, how and at what cost they should have water. Who will help them?