The Value of Life in Kenya
blurb:isstoday:12022009kenya
12 February 2009: The Value of Life in Kenya
Hardly a week goes by in Kenya without a building burning to the ground. Though physical structures might be indicative of development, in many instances the way they are being built points to the inferior quality of the kind of rushed ‘development’ Africa is experiencing in many instances. We all tend to look aside and pretend that there is progress when we see buildings sprouting up all over the place, yet this habit of normalizing wrong and dangerous developments lower the value of life. The burning buildings in Kenya are one such indicator of the worth of human life and the Nakumatt supermarket that burnt down two weeks ago showed the real face of capitalist tendencies - gain at the cost of life.
On-going investigations into the cause of the fire and the failure to evacuate the building are concentrating on the allegations that security guards- askaris- were ordered to shut the doors to prevent customers from escaping without paying for the goods and to prevent looting. The fire spread slowly such that most people would have managed to escape to safety. Unfortunately an unknown number of people died because the management was too pre-occupied with minimizing its losses- never mind the lives of people. The management never thought of the explosive nature of gas that it stocked on its shelves and that is sold in all supermarkets across the country. This same attitude of failing to take precautions has been demonstrated time and again by many leaders - be they in the corporate world or in government.
The Nakumatt fire and the scale of the tragedy, as well as the apparent recklessness that caused it, spurred the Nairobi Central Business District Association to conduct a spot check on the safety of buildings in the city. This quick survey of 30 buildings revealed that 70% of the commercial buildings: restaurants, bars, nightclubs and food outlets, did not have fire escape routes. Parking buildings, hospitals and schools also lack preparedness to manage fires and efforts to have buildings comply with the building by-laws stated in the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2007 have been fruitless. Strangely enough for the Nakumatt building, certificates of compliance with these regulations are available even though the building did not have fire exits.
This same lowering of the value of life is demonstrated again in Kenya by the unplanned developments that have seen both residential and commercial buildings go up all over Nairobi. In some cases, buildings are put up on top of water, sewerage and gas pipes and with the lack of monitoring by the council authorities, disasters are inevitably waiting to happen. Eastleigh suburb is already struggling with sewers spewing sludge next to new and old buildings yet the construction continues. This makes ‘development’ lose its essence when it refers to everything that resembles change even though the change may have negative impacts later on. For Kenya to upgrade its ‘development’ in Nairobi an overhaul of the planning system is essential and this has to include a proper cost-benefit analysis of the costs of replanning and rebuilding.
Dr Annie Barbara Chikwanha, Senior Research Fellow, African Human Security Initiative, ISS Nairobi Office
