Why Resident Associations Must Change Tack.

Towards the end of 2022, an Asian family in the Westlands area of Nairobi helplessly watched their house stripped to the ground by hooligans hired by suave but spineless operatives determined to dispossess the Asian family of their home for decades.

This week in Karen, a similar undertaking by bold grabbers unfolded and nearly succeeded but for the edgy residents' swift action. An old white family's property was under attack.

These stories are told or experienced across the city of Nairobi and the same script plays out always.

Within Karen and many leafy suburbs, motorbike-aided phone snatching incidences and muggings are on the rise. Some of these crimes are attributable partly to harsh economic times and the indifference of the concerned authorities.

It has been said before, that insanity is about doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. All these occurrences point to a reactionary rather than a preventative approach to serious matters. Some resident association officials also carry a larger-than-life personality and in many cases believe that only they have the solutions, yet these terrifying attacks on persons and property persist.

We now have learned better that if something is not fit for purpose, its presence or absence makes the same difference. Whereas in the OJ Simpson case, the phrase: "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit", got someone free, in our case it does not fit and we must convict. And this is so because every time associations fail, they embolden the likes of the Karen grabbers.

First, all associations expect residents to know where their offices are and leave it to prospective members to look for them.

Religion is a lot more successful than these associations because they have effective outreach programs. When someone is new to the area, through the neighborhood watch famously referred to as Nyumba Kumi, the associations ought to pay such residents a welcome visit during which they can articulate their ideals and the importance of such new people joining them. All we see in social media forums when residents contribute within such walls is "are you a member?".It is such a turnoff and does more harm than good to the well-intended safety of neighbourhoods.

Second, environmental scanning sessions are mandatory. In the corporate world, teams periodically get together away from the office to apprise each other of the challenges detected in the landscape. These sessions help those who have not encountered these challenges to respond better from a preventative perspective. The same should happen with all associations. Residents hardly hear of meetings convened to collect or share intelligence and to come up with possible ways of remedying such revelations. It is all about reaching the association if you have something useful to share and not the association reaching out.

Thus far, some officials are boiling in their bodies as they read this, but every new occurrence serves to remind us that the associations as we know them today, are possibly at 35% of objective. A whopping 65% is too big a miss to ignore. It is a voluntary service, yes, I know that, and residents are not an easy lot to bring together, and yes, I know that too. Kindly cool down and read on.

A big reason for the creation of resident associations in Kenya is because of the inefficiencies and lapses experienced by residents in so far as public services are concerned. A better route to follow is to find recourse legally by asking the government for refunds every time an incident that could have been prevented by administrative structures occurs. For instance, when grabbers force owners to go the legal route to defend what is theirs, the government must refund such costs via claims forwarded to the concerned department by associations on behalf of the affected people, and of cause, get the rightful plaintiffs to receive such monies.

And this is plausible because the government's reluctance here puts additional strain on taxpayers instead of using salaried law enforcement agencies to avert such experiences. It is not the residents fault that government job audit/inspections and appraisal measures aren't adhered to. The cost of such lapses amounts to double taxation on affected residents.

Resident associations should play a role in the licensing or regulation of boda-bodas operating within their jurisdictions. A reciprocal arrangement by the concerned police stations to avail a Boda-Boda police team will go a long way in bringing sanity and order to all areas covered by resident associations. The same goes for kiosks and roadside traders who dot the landscape across the city. These traders must comply or ship out. The associations have on this front exposed to us their toothless gums as they have been unable to bite.

Water, a critical component in our daily living is intermittently distributed by the county government. Sometimes power disappears for hours on end, thus denying residents the comfort needed to stay productive, as some people now work from home. We would expect associations to take up the fight on behalf of short-changed residents. Giving us a history of when the problems began is not enough. Step up your game. There are ways of suing utility companies until such time that they become efficient.

The Consumer Federation of Kenya, CoFeK, should be a critical cog in the wheel of resident associations but we know that they are selective in their work. They have been unable to take on unfair monopolies and the excesses of financial institutions that have fleeced Kenyans—yet they are not in the leather industry. Associations must step in and fight on behalf of residents on things such as the disposal of effluence and the quality of basic products consumed frequently.

A continued narrow-focus approach and the upholding of predictable reactionary default settings are your greatest undoing.