OMUTHIYA – The Omuthiya town council through the mayor’s office has erected decent shacks to house three destitute families who lived in their own makeshift structures of discarded cardboard boxes at Kaniita informal settlement.

As much as this may still look as indecent housing to a distant person, it has come in handy for the families who say they were exposed to all-weather elements, snakes and public attacks.
“This is better than where we were, it was not safe at all sleeping in the open with only boxes covering you. Often passers-by will be hurling insults, and it’s even worse when it rains,” narrated Abiatar Johannes, who has six children.

He lives with his wife, and both are unemployed.
Johannes said he had been living in such a deplorable situation for almost nine years, a few years after the town was proclaimed a town.

Johannes however raised concern that the new facility is in close proximity to a pit latrine, which he says gives off an unbearable stink. 

“We don’t know how we can fit in this room considering that I have a big family, especially the children. Where we lived I had made up another ramshackle shack nearby, now I don’t know. But the pit latrine is really a problem, it smells and we have small kids,” he added.

Johannes does not have a decent job and makes a living from assisting as a loadmaster at Omuthiya, while his wife sells kapana. 

The facility was handed over by urban and rural development minister Peya Mushelenga, who echoed concern that the place lacked ventilation, while in the same vein applauded the council’s efforts to assist the needy.

Meanwhile, Omuthiya acting CEO Simon Nghuulondo said the facility was made possible through the mayor’s office, which has a social responsibility mandate to assist the vulnerable and needy in the community.