Nairobi residents want cockroaches, bedbugs declared a ‘disaster’

It’s a war many families in the capital have been fighting for years inside their kitchens, bedrooms and at the sitting rooms. 

Residents who spoke to Wananchi Reporting said it’s a silent and ‘shameful’ war that many household lack the courage to discuss in the open.

That’s because cockroaches and bedbugs have often been associated with 'unhygienic' conditions.

Many says that the annoying pests have become part of the furniture in most houses.

That they rule most kitchens, lounging areas, bedrooms, bathroom, the wardrooms – and some you will find counting days inside your trouser pockets.

Residents believe that the emergence of fake pesticides being peddled around the streets of Nairobi have not helped.

Juliet Kamau says she has spent thousands of shillings on pesticides that lack the required potency.

“My house has become uninhabitable because of bedbugs. I don’t even look forward to going back to the house after work,” says the resident of Pipeline area.

“I have tried nearly every type of chemical being hawked around Nairobi, but the bedbugs are still here,” she says with a dejected look.

Just recently she bought some liquid pesticides in town for Sh250.

“The seller even demonstrated just how effective it was by spraying a few cockroaches he had packed inside a container. I took it home happy that my troubles were gone, but nothing,” she says.

Juliet says that the only other option left is to sell all her furniture to a secondhand store, and start afresh, possibly even move houses.

Residents suspect that some unscrupulous pesticide sellers could be selling them fake concoctions.

“Hii ni Nairobi,” says Juliet with a smile.

“I think the government should declare bedbugs, and cockroaches a national disaster,” says Kamau.

Lencer Achieng, who resides in Nairobi’s Komarock estate, has had a similar experience.

“All the time you will hear these people moving around the estate selling this ‘powerful pesticide they have just discovered, only to buy it and get disappointed,” she says.

Lencer says she had to throw a wooden double-decker bed outside.

“I woke up one morning and just took the bed outside, and that’s how the bedbugs left my house,” says the mother of two who is currently dealing with the headache of cockroaches.

Residents are asking the government through the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) to help tackle bedbugs and cockroaches in the estates.

They are also asking the government to regulate especially independent sellers of pesticides – as they could be selling harmful products to the people.