Nairobi residents are complaining about the outbreak of bedbugs and fault matatus and buses for the spread. The residents now call upon the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to intervene and remove public service vehicles found infested by the bugs.
Six out of 10 Nairobians use public transport to get to their destinations. According to the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research Analysis (KIPPRA), over 58 per cent of Nairobians use public service vehicles to work and other destinations.
Simultaneously, over 10,000 matatus move from estates to the central business district in a day. In the process, hundreds of thousands of people and their luggage is transported from one region to another. Most of the luggage being carried is infested by bed bugs, leaving some of them in the matatus and spreading them to other passengers.
While in the matatus, the bed bugs cause a huge discomfort to those sitting in chairs infested by them. This is displayed through rigorous scratching which leads to people hardly sitting in one position throughout the ride.
“These matatus are nothing but dispersal agents moving these insects from one place to another, ” said a resident from Umoja.
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Hygiene and Maintenance in Matatus
In addition to the luggage being infected, matatus do not practice proper hygiene in their vehicle maintenance. Since it costs too much to do regular cleaning and fumigation, they often stay unwashed, leaving them infested. The passengers then sit uncomfortably in those matatus and later on, may carry one or two bed bugs either to their workplace or to their homes.
Other residents pointed out that the torn seats in the matatus store most bed bugs, aiding in the spread of the bugs. According to them, before a matatu is cleared to carry people, it has to adhere to certain hygiene standards in order to avoid such outbreaks.
Aside from asking the NTSA to intervene, the people are pleading with the Saccos to ensure their vehicles are hygienic and usable. They plead with them to ensure that these vehicles undergo regular cleaning and fumigation in order to reduce the rate of the bed bug outbreak.
Due to this, most households around Nairobi are grappling with the bed bug menace which is invading their bedrooms, sitting rooms and every single area of the house. Most complain of embarrassment at the workplace when the laptop is opened in public and a bedbug or two crawls out of it.
Other countries complain about the spread of bed bugs is mainly done by the public transport system.
Read Also: An Inmate was Eaten Alive by Bedbugs in Cell died by homicide.
