Enhancing our care for the urban air we breathe

Abstract

Living in a city or a metropolitan area is a great promotion for human well-being, given its convenient mode of life and efficient way of working. This is so for Kenyan cities, Nairobi included. However, concerns are emerging from residents and scientists that the unprecedented development of cities has caused a range of environmental problems and exerts huge pressure on natural ecosystems that we rely on (UNEP, 2016; Asian Coalition for Housing Rights 2004; Muthama, 2019a). Several parts of Kenyan cities continue to experience overwhelming solid waste challenges and air pollution impacts among other environmental concerns. The 2017 Kenya Economic Survey estimated that 19.9 million Kenyans, representing 38.3% of the population, suffered from respiratory ailments that are exacerbated by poor air quality. The 2019 Kenya Economic Survey estimated that 21.8 million Kenyan, representing 39.3% of Kenyans, suffered from the respiratory ailment, indicating a 1% increase of the ailments at the national level. This is a pointer that the air pollution problem may be increasing. Current trends, including industrialization and urbanization, suggest that air quality in Kenya cities will worsen over time unless targeted interventions are adopted in the short, medium, and long term and the institutional and technical capacity of organizations responsible for Air Quality Management (AQM) is strengthened. The 2019 Kenya Economic Survey indicated that the total number of environmental crimes reported to the Kenya National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) rose within the period 2014 to 2018. For example, 97 crimes were reported in 2017, rising to 156 in 2018. The increase in reporting may be attributed to the introduction of equipment for checking air quality. This further confirms the need for continuous monitoring of indoor and outdoor air pollution in Kenya However, the efforts by the national and county governments, to enforce existing regulations is hampered by a lack of high-quality and continuous air quality monitoring data (Muthama, 2019b). Without an understanding of the baseline air quality in Kenya and how it varies across the country as well as over time, the NEMA Standards and Regulations cannot be effectively enforced..