Floods – Thieves now targeting abandoned houses in Ngoingwa.

A section of Ngoingwa Estate that has been submerged in flashfloods. Over 30 homesteads are inhabitable with their owners seeking refuge elsewhere. 

Residents of Chania Estate 6^th Avenue of the larger Ngoingwa Estate are a worried lot after over 30 households have been submerged in flashfloods for over a month now, forcing most of them to abandon their houses to seek refuge elsewhere.

As if that is not enough, criminals have taken advantage of their absence to break into their homes and stealing from them.

The thieves are said to be wading into the flood water to gain access to the deserted homes before breaking into them and stealing electronics, furniture and other valuables. Some are also said to be stealing house fitting, pipes, indoor fixtures and appliances from vacant houses. They are said to be taking these material to scrap dealers for quick cash.

Wairimu Kihonge who is one of the victims say that even after being promised by the leaders from the  County Government of Kiambu that they would drain the water, none of them has ever come one month down the line to salvage their situation.

They wondered how they would continue paying rates to the county government yet they received no services in return. They also failed to understand the relevance of the National Government Emergency Fund if at all it wasn’t benefitting those who were in such calamities.

She however thanked Thika Red Cross officials who frequent the area for assistance but reckoned that they lack proper equipment needed to drain off the water.

The residents are now contemplating raising money towards hiring some machinery to aid them drain this water.

“We have contacted an engineer who has given us a budget of about Sh. 7 million to do the work. This is a lot of money and proving to be a tall order,” explained Patrick Mwaura who resides at 7^th avenue.

The residents add that they fear an outbreak of waterborne diseases in the area as the water is getting mixed up with raw sewer since the area depend on septic tanks to dispose their sewer.

On Saturday, their attempts to drain the water using hoes and jembes hit a snag as these tools could not manage the required depth of the intended trench.

When contacted, Eng. John Muchiri, the officer in-charge of water and infrastructure in the office of the Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina said that even though the problem of drainage was a county government function, the area MP would intervene in case nothing was done.

Noting that the lives and health of these people was paramount, Muchiri said that they would use the little resources at their disposal to ensure that the lives of the affected families was soon brought back to normalcy.

“Our office does not have a kitty to deal with calamities of this magnitude unlike the county government whose mandate this one falls. Otherwise, we cannot sit back and watch our people suffer. If the county government fails to act, the MP has volunteered to use his own personal resources to salvage the situation,” he said.