My Hood: The neglected Dip estate, drawing its identity from the colonial times

A walk in this estate reveals the population of children as they conglomerate with their neighbourhood friends and play various games. 

Business is slow at this time of day owing to the adults who leave home to fend for their families, yet the road is busy with bodabodas and tuk-tuks plying the area, perhaps making a delivery and dropping off people.

Amusingly, the only tarmacked road they ply that runs from Kwa Chief in Kaptembwo through Posta, residents claim, ends at an unknown politician’s home.

Dip is the name of this Estate. It sits in Kaptembwa ward, Nakuru West sub-county, and has maintained its name owing to a cattle dip that existed over five decades ago.

“Residents, including the white settlers, who then were cattle owners took them to tackle some of the external pests their animals suffered,” Evans Orina, the area’s Mzee wa nyumba kumi, tells us.

Now, a shallow pit filled with soil and grass growing is what remains of the once booming livestock area. 

The dilapidated structure was recently dismantled due to its disuse as the area has transitioned into a residential zone characterized by medium to low-cost housing, with a few people here and there practicing subsistence farming. 

Like many other residential areas, the area has its fair share of challenges in equal measure among them the effects of the recent flash floods. 

Thomas Ososi, a bodaboda rider, who's lived in the area for over two decades, notes that even with the decent drainage systems in the area, a few families have recently been affected by the flash floods. 

"Despite our efforts to reduce the level of insecurity in the area, we still lack street lights, which have hindered our business operations after a certain time. We urge our area MCA to address this issue, as he is consistently unavailable when we raise such complaints," he adds.