User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Kenya

Public toilets in Kenya vary widely in type and quality, from pits dug into the ground to squat toilets to flush toilets. They are found at places like restaurants and hotels. A legal case in 2022 resulted in the government being told that access to free public toilets along the country's road network was a right and the government needed to build them. The public toilet situation varies from municipality to municipality.

Public toilets
choo is Swahili for toilet. A 2021 study found there were three public toilets per 100,000 people. Public toilets in the country can vary widely. Squat toilets are one of the most common type of public toilets, though many are little more than pits dug into the ground. There are sit-down flush toilets, often found at hotels and restaurants. Only a few places tend to have flush toilets with toilet seats. These include high end hotels and restaurants. Mid-range hotels and restaurants may have a toilet but no seat or may have a squat toilet. The quality of public toilets is very low, with most being dirty or poorly maintained. Public toilets in Kenya are similar to those in India in terms of their condition.

Campsites at national parks often have very basic toilet blocks, with the facilities consisting of a row of pit toilets, a tap for water and in a few, showers. The public toilets at national parks generally do not have toilet paper. When visiting national parks, visitors are encouraged to carry out their used toilet paper, condoms, tampons and sanitary napkins.

Most semi-urban dwellers defecated outdoors as they lacked access to public and private toilets. This was in large part because most semi-urban areas in Kenya lacked indoor plumbing. This resulted in a large number of health problems, with one of the leading cause of death for children under five in the country was diarrhea,. often a result of poor sanitation.

History
Some private groups and organizations were managing public toilets in the early 2000s. This included the Kibuye Traders Association. Public toilets Chiga and Kosawo were vandalized in the early 2000s.

It cost around USD$0.02-0.08 to use a public toilet in 2007.

There were few public toilets along Kenya's highways in the 2000s and 2010s. Drivers on long distance bus rides in Kenya would often stop their bus in the middle of nowhere so people could get off and relieve themselves along the side of the road because of a lack of public toilets along the route. Bus drivers would often stop for such stops upon request.

Adrian Kamotho Njenga sued the Council of Governors the Kenya National Highways Authority, the Kenya Rural Roads Authority and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority, claiming they breached the Kenyan constitution through their failure to provide free and adequate toilet facilities along public highways. He argued the lack of toilet facilities along highways put Kenyans into a degrading and inhuman situation. He also argued it was a form of physiological torture. The four entities he sued rejected his argument, claiming no such constitutional requirement existed. A judge agreed with Njenga's argument, and in 2022 told Kenyan authorities they needed to create and implement a plan to provide free public toilet facilities along the country's public road network.

Kibera
Kibera, an urban slum of Nairobi, has almost no public toilets, with only one public pit toilet in 2018. In 2018 in Kibera, there was one pit toilet for every 100 residents.

Mathare
In 2012, there were 144 public toilets in Mathare, a Nairobi slum. Each public toilet was used between 17 and 232 people on a daily basis. At that time, over 70% of Mathare residents had to walk more than 50 meters to access toilet facilities. Women frequently did not use them.

Starting in late 2012, non-governmental-organizations teamed up with the local government in order to try to increase the number of public toilets in Mathare. Sanergy ended up constructing more than 140 toilets in Mathare, though they charged between KES 3 and KES 10 per use.

Despite an increase in the number of public toilets in Mathare between 2012 and 2018, many women continued to avoid them, with a third of women during the day and two thirds of women during the night relying on other options during when they needed to urinate or defecate. These options included peeing in a plastic bag or in a bucket, or publicly defecating. Women had concerns regarding the safety of these public toilets, their health as a result of using public toilets and the costs of using public toilets.

Nairobi
Local residents in Nairobi often found themselves frustration by nongovernmental organizations and community organizations projects around public toilet and sanitation projects in the 2000s. This was in large part because after the initial funding for the project ran its course, there was little to no ongoing support to continue projects and maintain infrastructure created in support of them.

In the early 2010s, only 5% of the population in Nairobi had access to a private toilet. This was problematic as public toilets were often closed during the night, pushing people to engage in open defecation or use flying toilets.

Naivasha
Sanivation launched a project in Naivasha in 2016 to provide portable toilets in local homes that lacked basic sanitation using locally made toilets that relied on solar energy to transform feces into fuel for cooking. The company charged clients a monthly fee of 600 Kenyan shillings, around USD$6, to service the toilets twice a week. The company had around 80 toilets they serviced, with those toilets providing facilities to over 400 people. The toilets could be used indoor.

Nakuru
A urine harvesting public toilet program run by the Nakuru Environmental Consortium was in operation in Nakuru Central Business District in the 2000s. Urine generated from users, who paid around USD$0.075 each use, was sold to fertilizer manufacturing companies. These public toilets also offered public showers, with users paying around USD$0.30 a shower. The cost included a towel, soap and slippers. Each public toilet had two cleaners, one for the women's toilets and one for the men's.

Pangani
Women have been raped in the public toilet in Pangani in the early 20002. As a result, neighborhood groups were given an opportunity to manage that facility.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Kenya
Around 2.5 billion people around the world in 2018 did not have access to adequate toilet facilities. Around 4.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation. Public toilet access around the world is most acute in the Global South, with around 3.6 billion people, 40% of the world's total population, lacking access to any toilet facilities. 2.3 people in the the Global South do not have toilet facilities in their residence. Despite the fact that the United Nation made a declaration in 2010 that clean water and sanitation is a human right, little has been done in many places towards addressing this on a wider level.

Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets.

Lack of access to adequate sanitation in the 2000s and 2010s left women particularly vulnerable to gender violence. Across Africa, open defecation had social consequences. These included loss of dignity and privacy. It also put women at risk of sexual violence.

There are generally two toilet styles in public bathrooms in Africa. One is a traditional squat toilet. The other is a western style toilet with bowl and a place to sit.