“Water is the soul of the Earth,” said Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), the American poet. He would have been mistaken for a Nairobi native. You will recognise a Nairobian - not us recent Nairobi immigrants - a born and bred one from Buru, Huruma or other Nairobi villages, by their attitude towards water. They revere water.
‘Water is life’ has a deeper meaning to a Nairobian than it has to you and me. If Nairobi was a tribe, they would have water as their god. It is only in Nairobi that an estate increases value because it has a borehole. It is only in Nairobi that a house can go for years without water running through its taps. Nairobians will invent award -winning technologies but will have plastic containers adorning their balconies, instead of plants and flowers. Nairobians trade in water cartels. Neighbourhoods steal water or direct pipes to your estate at a fee. A Nairobi couple will fight about water, as if there are not enough problems in the world to stress about.
