By
Kelvin Njuguna
She wakes up to do the same thing she has been doing for the last 27
years. She has mastered the schedule well until the body is well accustomed to
it. From 6.am to 10.am clean the market, from 10am to 1.30pm tidy the environment
behind the shops and go for a 30-minute lunch break. Burn the garbage from
2.pm. and finally empty large bins at 4pm. This has been the life of Jane
Wambui since 1985 when she joined Laikipia County Council as a permanent
employee serving as a cleaner.
Wambui 49 was first posted to work in Sipili shopping centre in
Laikipia west but has had numerous transfers only to be redeployed to Sipili.
She attributes this to inability of many council employees to cope with the demanding
work environment in the area. Typically one person cannot manage to clean the
200 acres shopping centre. She remembers being assigned her work with six
others only for them to be transferred later and left alone to tend the area. However,
she acknowledges the work done by different organizations to ensure clean
environment in the shopping centre.
Jane Wambui, Council worker collecting litter. (PHOTO:Dennis Kipkirui|LRV) |
Work has not come in a silver platter for Wambui. The mother of six
children has been struggling to fend for her family. She admits that it is
family needs that drove her to work for the council. She however complains of
the past regime which allowed the council to oppress them. Wambui praises the
current administration for ensuring that they their payments arrive on time and
not letting arrears to accrue. As expected she only get peanuts compared to
work demand, thanks to her low cadre in the organization.
Her working condition has been her great concern. The environment
poses a lot of risks to her life and the council has been turning on a deaf ear
to her pleas. Most of her colleagues have succumbed to poor health occasioned
by the fateful working environment. Despite the good work done by these
employees by ensuring a clean environment for human habitation, they usually
cater for their treatment. The council can only afford to send them to cheap
dispensaries without adequate facilities which can help them get better medical
attention because of the risks involved with their duties.
She blames weak environmental policies for escalating poor waste
management. She notes that policy executors are also relaxed in ensuring that
people adhere to prescribed mode of waste disposal. Sipili market for example,
dumps all manner of wastes in one bin ranging from needles to papers and it is
expected that the collector ensures her safety.
Some people even go ahead and relieve themselves on bins located in the
toilets. She alleges that most business premises in the area lack bins which
make customers drop litter all over the place. This strains her a lot as she
has to spend much time and energy collecting them. On a typical day she ends up
with a headache and stomach upset. The worst usually happens when she has to
dispose off a dead dog within the vicinity or along the road that leads to the
centre. She will have to locate a place and dig a hole to bury it.
Wambui nostalgically recalls the
day they were employed and were provided with full working kit. This was made
up of gloves, mask, gumboots and uniform together with six bars of soap every
month. This made her like her working environment. Today the supply is not
stable. This has further compromised their health. The only item she has today
issued by the council is a 10-year old rake and a five litre container shaped
like a spade used for shoveling garbage. Surprisingly, if she was to get a
transfer, the council expects her to move with these meager tools to the new
station. But to her a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. She is not discouraged by lack of facilities to
do her chores. She reports to her work place hopping that someday someone will
intervene and change the situation for the better.
The middle aged woman scorns at
the way the council is ran. She is particularly disturbed by the circus involved
in the issuance of uniform. She complains that her seniors ask her to send
cloth measurements and preferred color only for tenders awarded to take ages to
deliver the uniform. They only arrive at a time when they are too small to fit
the owner. This deals the owner double blow because they don’t use the clothes
and have their wages deducted since the council stopped buying them uniform.
The Laikipia County Council employee can only be differentiated from the
civilians by an aging job card, placed precariously at the left side of her
chest.
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