On Sunday, I decided to pay a visit to my childhood neighborhood of Buruburu and what I saw is very worrying. When I went near the shopping center all I could see are old men chewing Muguka speaking about their good old days when they used to have money and women.
The women I saw all have tummies and were sipping glasses of wine at a nearby watering hole called Kisima.
The women looked like they have just survived a Nuclear Armageddon
Young men, who many looked jobless were all speaking about how they depend on their sisters’ income who works in town in the “evenings”. Many looked like zombies.
Shockingly if you want to see the parking lot for Jalopies go to Buru Buru, every household has a jalopy and the woman in the house is the driver – No wonder you see many women driving in Buruburu – their husbands are liquor slaves.
Before curfew, I went to a house near quick mart supermarket, I asked the owner the cost of renting a one-bedroom for my sister who has just graduated- he told me Sh 18,000 and the house looked like a pigsty.
In my conclusion, Buru Buru is now a slum and soon it will be worse than a rat hole in the coming days.
When I was young Buruburu was one of the affluent estates in Nairobi and pretty girls who would not even hurt a fly used to live there. We used to love their names since there was no Shiku, Shiru, Kari, Atty but suave names like Kate, Irene, Diana and so forth.
Boys were always good in education and they had no time of eating Muguka and many went abroad for further studies.
To my good brothers and sisters what happened to Buruburu ?
The planned and gated communities that housed middle class in the 80s and 90s are shells of former self…
. Population explosion without commensurate increase in facilities led to kenyan innovation ‘extensions’ the rest is history!
so what you are trying to convince us is that our African names are unsophisticated and English names are “suave” ?
FYI Buru has never been an affluent estates, its has always been a shiithole in eastlands
“Wasee wa Buru” was a badge of honour in high school manze. If you came from diaspora like I did ulikuwa a “ruro-urban”, no different from “wasee wa ocha”.
The tenant owners who were mostly civil servants and lecturers bought those houses through some form of a mortgage.
Some are still paying through their noses to date 35 years later. Those that have finished paying are retirees facing a bleak future.
They also cannot develop their individual plots since the walls are shared, but the priorities are not.
It’s a shitty situation to those wazees.
Ni kutuwachia utatuwachia hizo zako za high standards !!!
Kama buruburu ni slu
m sasa Kibich na mathare na mukuru zitakua ni nini ?
In conclusion:
You assesment of buruburu is silly and pedestrian ati you pass there one day after many years and you have a conclusive report on the whole estate and all its people.
I can relate…i grew up across the road, umo and had cousins wa buru…maringo walikuwa nayo ungedhani sisi ni lesser beings…i wish you would see how the tables have turned…Grateful to God.