It was not a trending news item but it caught
my attention. The bedbug infestation in Baba
Dogo estate in Nairobi.
I would have probably missed it, but for the
news poll questions. Is it a case of hygiene or
witchcraft? I was forced to empathize with the
Baba Dogo residents. Some looked
embarrassed and defeated.
In the league of issues affecting us in the
country, bed bugs cannot be competing for
airtime when we have serious security
concerns and scandals like Anglo Leasing
resurfacing.
Residents of Baba Ndogo were complaining
about how nasty things had gotten. People
could not sleep. Bugs will keep you awake at
night with an itch that cannot be ignored.
I applaud the reporter who filed this story, but
I was surprised that there was not much
reaction and at best a muted response to this
issue from the public. Bed bugs, like jiggers,
make us squirm.
A bed bug infestation seems like a ridiculous
prospect in the year 2014. This is the story we
assume is confined to some seedy, dirt-cheap
boarding and lodging room, housed in the
sleaziest corner of the city.
However, this is not some third-world issue
linked to un-hygienic city housing conditions.
Bed bugs are a common urban irritant in the
so-called developed world. Entomologists and
pest management professionals have raised a
red
Bed bugs were declared a plague in 2012 in
the USA. A report by a pest control provider
named Terminix, listed major US cities among
them Chicago, Washington DC and Miami as
bed-bugged. Philadelphia enjoyed the dubious
honour of the most infested US city.
New York held the title two years earlier. It
was a lost opportunity that the Kenyan
government would have used as a legitimate
reason to issue a travel warning to its citizens
visiting the United States and with dire threat
of a disruptive holiday.
That said, bed bugs are an issue that I wish my
governor will not take lightly. These little
creatures are savvy travelers, hiding in the
cracks of suitcases and a single female will give
birth to four generations.
Therefore if there are bed bugs in Baba Dogo
for a year, we can safely conclude that the city
is bugged. As far as bugs that bug go, they are
a formidable force. Even the tenacious
cockroach does not play in this league.
They apply stealth, suck blood and have proven
to be a major nuisance for a creature that
does not kill you. Here is another scary fact.
Reputable fumigators have repeatedly said that
bed bugs are the most difficult pests in urban
spaces to eradicate.
In the post-DDT blanket spray era, there is
really no cheap and easy way to get rid of bed
bugs. Fumigators have to offer a guarantee
that humans will not be collateral damage in
their quest to poison the pest.
The bad news is that bed bugs are a poor
man’s burden. If you cannot afford a
professional fumigator, they will have their
way with you. Given Nairobi’s past dismal
record in disaster responsiveness to anything
reportedly tragic, you can appreciate my real
concerns here.
There is metaphor in all this. Kikulacho
kinguoni mwako. A true parasite never forgets
to schedule its ‘feeding’. A parasitic system will
suck you dry and still return on cue for more.
By the time one comes to appreciate the scale
of the menace, they will already have become
a victim of it.
