07/03/2026
Nairobi was largely an impenetrable swamp covered with a thick vegetation of papyrus. As the township expanded the biggest headache was how to construct roads in this new soggy British outpost.
Constructing roads such as Kirinyaga Rd and Muranga Rd presented the biggest challenge because that part of the town was extremely soggy and inaccessible. Engineers had to use a makeshift boat made out of papyrus reeds to reach the site.
For example When they began constructing Muranga road right from Globe roundabout in 1905, they discovered that the waterbed was so high with very clear water. They had to keep digging through nearly 20 feets of water to reach the rocks below.
Having reached the bedrocks, they used stone bottoming and soil embankments to construct the road. This was to prevent the water below from seeping onto the road. Over the deeper parts of the river , near today's Globe flyover, a steel girder bridge was built to support the road.
However these attempts to suppress mother nature backfired on April 22, 1922, during the rainy season. The water pressure below burst the surface throwing a huge part of Muranga rd and the bridge in the air.
An engineer in the Public Works Department blamed the destruction on shockwaves which loosened the obstacles that kept in place huge volumes of water below the surface for so many years.
Today, the area that was once an untamed swampy wilderness, is a vibrant city with land going for millions and even billions. However it still remains vulnerable to the effect of its geographical location, which the authorities have failed to mitigate through proper flood risk management strategies.
Netherlands was able to transform coastal areas into habitable, arable, and agricultural land. The Nairobi county government and the national government can also do something to prevent ferocious floods.
