SERIOUS MAJOR DISASTEROUS ARE IN WAITING IN KISUMU CITY?

  Disaster........1                                                               
  Leo Odara Omolo,
                                                                             
                                  KISUMU November 21, 2006
 
   Commentary by Leo Odera Omolo
 
  The axiom that accidents and disaster don't just happen accidentally, but are
man-made is not far from the truth.
 
  If one took the disasters and accidents that have hit and devastated Kenya in
the recent past, one could but agree that most of them are man made due to our own negligence and the I don't care attitude, mismanagement graft, complacency and laxity on the parts of the authorities.
 
  Be it perennial floods of Kano plains and Budalangi, the story are the same.
Whether it is tribal clashes, disease outbreak and the collapsed building in our
capital City, Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa and other major towns and road accident, the human hand is still soiled with the blood of the victims.
 
  My great concern at the moment is about Kisumu city, which has two major
disasters waiting to happen soon and at any time. The city fathers, the Provincial Administration and even the police authorities have taken no notice
of these two looming major disasters in waiting in Kisumu.
 
  The first of such impending major disaster is the possible collapse of Akiro-Building, former Lem Lem Hotel, which is located along Ang'awa Avenue behind the Standard Chartered Bank. The building is the one currently housing the booking offices of the Easy Coach Bus Services. It used to house the defunct Lem Lem Bar and Restaurant in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And it used to be a very popular central joint for both young revellers, businessmen and older people for both meals, musical lyrics and drinks.
 
  Akiro Building previously belonged to the late business man-cum-politician Mr. Maurice Michael Onyango Ombija ( Akiro) who died in a haile of police bullets in his Rangwe home Homa-Bay district in a mysterious circumstances, which still puzzles everyone who knew him. This particular building was auctioned to a Kisumu based business magnate a Mr. Gillanis of the famous Imperial Hotel and the chains of Gillani Bakeries in the same City. A bitter legal tussle ensued later after the Gillanis bought the building through open auction, which the late Onyango's family disputed as fraudulent.
 
  But no sooner than the Gillanis acquired the building, than it was gutten down
by fire under mysterious circumstances. The rest is history!!
 
  Instead of the Gillanis bringing down the half burnt three storey building to
construct another one, but new structure on the place, the business tycoon
resorted to renovate the same half way burnt structure against all technical
advices. The building was eventually renovated half way or half-heartedly using
the same burnt out and salvaged materials and later abandoned half way before
the completion.
 
  Akiro Building now stands right in the centre of Kisumu Central Business
District (CBD) as a huge monument of eyesore while posing the real danger to
thousands of passer by. The most endangered species in the same block or are
passengers waiting/embarking from the buses. Both Taxis, Matatus, Tuk-tuk and pedestrians alike who pass along this building are in real danger. They faces the risk of losing their livers or being maimed should this building collapse
any time from now.
 
  The actual danger of this building collapsing any time from now is aggravated
during rainy season like now. My main worry is that this building will not and
might not survive the current short rain or the next long rain.
 
  As is expected, this building should not be a danger to human life if the
Kisumu City Council were doing what is expected of them. Instead of recommending the total evacuation and destruction of the monument of shame, the Municipality authorities has licensed the Easy Coach Bus Services Company to open an office on one part of the halfway burnt out building
 
  The municipality is also collecting revenue from Standard Bank customers,
taxis, "Boda Boda bicycle taxis, Tuk Tuk and traders who parks their vehicle
next to the burnt down building. Should this burnt building collapse, I think
the Kisumu Town Clerk and Town Engineer altogether with the Mayor should be sued jointly for the compensation to anyone one who might be hurt or this/her property damaged in the event.
 
  Kisumu City's second disaster in waiting is the mammoth crowd of women fish and vegetable mongers and their esteemed customers at a major round-about on the Kisumu Kakamega, Kisumu Busia and Kisumu-Ahero junction near the main Jubilee market near the main Kissumu Bus terminal.
 
  From as early as 6 am 10 pm everyday, fish and vegetable vendors sell their
merchandise round about this junction. The place is so congested on a busy
highway that one of these days, a motor vehicle, a bus or a track or  trailer
will lose control and ram itself into a sea of human beings and kill many
people. Why can't the Kisumu City Council think of a preventive mechanism ahead of the looming disaster?
 
  The third and the last disaster facing Kisumu City is for the Town's Council
failure to plan in time and construct a major rounda-about at the Nyalenda,
Nyamasaria junction at  Kachok. This is the major entry point to the city
centre. The place is ever crowded by matatus touts, hawkers, travelling
passengers. Next to it is the Nakumat Mega City, a beautiful church, several
schools and crowded Nyalenda slums.
 
  A week hardly passes without either a Boda Boda bicycle taxi and his passenger is crushed to death by speeding motor vehicles leaving or heading into the city centre. The possibility of a speeding track or bus crashing and ramming into the huge human crowd that mingles around at this point cannot be ruled out. The place needs either a major round-about or huge bumps for the purpose of controlling the speeding motorists. It requires several speed limits billboards to be erected right from Nyamasaria suburbs along the way leading into the City.
 
  These disasters in making have persisted for over two decades. Successive
Nyanza P.Cs, Kisumu D.Cs, PPOs and provincial Traffic Commanders have previously tried hard to close the place called Oyile market in vain due to the greediness of the municipality top officials hell-bent on revenue collection in total neglent of human destiny. The fate of the human traffic at this important
junction now lies with destiny and God. But when the disaster finally strikes,
we shall all blame satan and some unseen power somewhere. Why not act in time before it occur?
 
  That unseen power somewhere is the Kisumu municipal Council who have turned a major round-about in the City Centre into a market of some sort. The local authority collects revenue using some ramshackle and doubtful receipts from the women fish-mongers and vegetable traders every evening. By doing that, one is tempted to believe this roadside madness is now an official municipal or market.
 
  When disaster takes place in a local authority's premises or market like this
one, the owner of that market must be held responsible for his deeds and misdeeds.
 
  The Kisumu Town clerk must thefore be prepared to be thus held responsible for his deeds and misdeeds when this foreseeable disaster takes place.
 
  I am afraid that will not take long especially during rainy seasons like this
when market is a buzz with fish and fish mongers.
 
  The Kisumu City council also need to cut down the number of filthy eating open air spots. There are so may filthy eating spots located almost in every street and even within the residential estates where the health and hygiene conditions posed big risk and the danger of major outbreak of cholera in the near future.  Can anyone wake up the city fathers?
 
 
  ENDS
  Leooderaomolo@yahoo.com   

The writer is LUOCOME REPORTER based in Kisumu. We urge all LUOCOME members with pressing issues pertaining to media and press releases to kindly contact him from any where in world. He will assist you to get true picture of your Village Developement.
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