Five million still rush to the bush to answer call of nature

By Ally Jamah

Nearly five million Kenyans (or 13 per cent) go for their long and short calls in the bush.

Most users of the ‘bush toilets’ are in North Eastern Province (63 per cent), perhaps because there is little chance of being spotted by a roving eye in the sparsely populated area.

Coast residents follow at 24 per cent, and Rift Valley with 20 per cent.

The most affected part of Rift Valley is the sparsely populated upper parts of the province like Turkana, where toilets are rare.

The smallest percentages of people who take the bush option are in Nairobi (0.4 per cent), and Central (0.2 per cent), since the areas are heavily populated.

But majority of Kenyans (74 per cent) use pit latrines to dispose off human waste, with the highest concentrations being in Western (95 per cent) and Central provinces (90 per cent).

North Eastern has the lowest penetration of pit latrines.

Sewer lines

Only seven per cent of Kenya’s households is connected to the main sewer lines, meaning that only a small fraction of the waste is properly processed, posing a risk of frequent disease outbreaks.

Even with such low connectivity to the sewage lines, the majority of local authorities still appear overwhelmed in processing sewage waste.

"Poor sanitary conditions undermine standards of health of local people and severely hampers development," said Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya while releasing the census figures.

The census also showed that 3.4 per cent of Kenya’s households use septic tanks to dispose off waste, with the highest use being recorded in Nairobi.

‘Flying toilets’ are common in informal urban settlements, where houses lack toilets.