Friday, June 14, 2013

How City Mortuary is key to Kidero’s success

Nairobi, Kenya: Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero’s visit to Nairobi City Mortuary and subsequent decree for a name-change opened the floodgate of memories. Whereas I believe there are more serious issues to concern ourselves with, other than whether we should call it a funeral home or a mortuary, I still hold that the visit was important for Dr Kidero. 
This is with the hope that he will make the place cleaner, the mortuary attendants less corrupt, and more professional, and yes… if he can relocate the morgue sandwiched between leafy estates and one of our most prestigious medical schools and teaching and referral hospital.
Perhaps he should also reconsider location of the other private morgue called Montezuma where children in the adjoining flats, opposite Nyayo Highrise Estate, can get a glimpse of bodies arriving and being moved out, from the balconies. Yes, we respect private property but our privacy should also be respected.
As a young reporter in the 1990s, I frequently found myself assigned to get stories from City Mortuary.
This as you know, is the final stop of poor commoners who die out of hospitals mostly at the hands of criminals, police and domestic violence. Others are victims of our man-made accidents such as sub-standard buildings collapsing and speeding and most often, drunken motorists.
I need not remind you where the men and women, who we believe are of substance, end up when they die because it is always the destination of news crews when a big man and woman falls here in Kenya.
Even if the death took place outside Nairobi you can be sure that the body will be flown on military or chartered craft and taken there.
So here I am reflecting on such disasters as Sunbeam Supermarket in 1996 when amid heavy downpour the balcony came down, killing over 20 people taking shelter there.
There have also been other disasters such as the 1997 terrorist bomb attack in Nairobi that claimed over 250 lives at one swish. As the Americans took the bodies of their fellow citizens to some secret container for preserving them, those of Kenyan victims were laid atop each other at City Mortuary.
VIP 3 lounge
The point I am trying to make, or the wish I would like to express on behalf of police officers, journalists, ambulance personnel and doctors is that Nairobi City Mortuary is the confluence of crime, careless driving and our negligence.
That is why with all respect to my former boss, who I have no doubt means well for this capital city and has big plans for it, I would also say I hope as he walked out of this mortuary, he spent a few minutes thinking not only about how to clean it up but also how to reduce the number of bodies being ferried in the first place.
Yes, Kidero is a manager par excellence, has a good track record, bears a super-impressive CV, and is a respected pharmacist.
He also is popular, given how he waded through the ethnic and economic bulwarks set on his way by The National Alliance and Baba Yao.
On reflection, he can and should reduce the number of traffic headed to City Mortuary. Here is how in a simple way he can help save lives.
Let us start with the unlit sections of Mombasa Road, from Nyayo National Stadium to City Cabanas where at least one person is run over by a vehicle daily.
Last Sunday evening for example, Embassava mini-bus ran over a young man opposite Fusion Plaza.
Last week, a matatu headed to Ukambani ran over another young man at the railway bridge after General Motors, and because the police did not come in time, his body was run over by other ‘unseeing’ motorists till early morning.
Last year, a mother and her two children were run over at dusk just opposite the Total Petrol Station before KIMC. Same month, a pregnant woman with a few weeks to go was killed by a motorist on the turn-off to Imara Daima.
Last month, a guy in a Subaru was burned alive in his car after he accidentally dived off the GM bridge, because its iron railings were carted off last year by scrap metal dealers.
And we still allow those to whom the VIP 3 lounge is open to use this bridge without rails!
By the way I wish after you banned scrap metal trade you also cancelled all existing licenses and invited the Chinese ambassador, whose country is the biggest client of this dirty trade, to your office for a discussion.
All it needs to stop these killings Dr Kidero, are soft bumps like those you smoothly glide over as you approach Nakuru City. Then again, we need lights that work at night, not decorations meant to impress visiting dignitaries.
By the way these streetlights, as Esther Passaris taught us long ago through Adopt-A-Light strategy, save lives.
If you flood our roads with lights, the number of bodies picked every night on Ngong Road, Jogoo Road, Thika Road, Waiyaki Way and Langata Road will drop.
Take the lighting to the slums and the number of drunks who knife each other over women and booze will also decline. Spread the Mombasa Road strategy to other streets and slums Dr Kidero and you will have saved lives, and God will, I am most certain, be pleased with you.
There are many other ways to reduce the deaths in this city, including garbage collection, and improving sewerage flows and sanitary conditions. Now here I would ask you to call the head of health department formerly under your office and the statistics will shock you.
My former boss, I believe you get the drift and being a smart chap, will even do better in reducing the deaths in this city using simple measures like dealing with the boda boda menace, drunken driving and muggers!  
The writer is Managing Editor, The County Weekly  at The Standard.
ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke

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