Rolling Out Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Approach to Arujo Community
Benson Okinyi, M&E Coordinator, Homa Bay Development Area
Introduction
Community Led Total Sanitation is a new approach that is currently being nurtured by Plan across its program
areas. In Kenya Homa Bay Development area has taken up this challenge to roll out the approach in the
communities. In an area where the latrine coverage is at 30% (Child survival Baseline Survey, 2005) this
intervention could never have been more timely. Past interventions in the DA has been based on the use PHAST
and PHASE in schools. Numerous trainings have been conducted to the communities but to date the impact is yet
to be felt.
The Arujo Community
Arujo Community is one of the communities that together comprise Kotieno CBO that is one of the CBO’s that Plan
works with. Arujo village is dissected to the west by River Arujo that also marks the boundary of the town location.
The river plays a very significant role in the lives of the inhabitants because of its waters used for both domestic
as well as agricultural production. According to the national population census projections, the village has an
estimated projected population of eight hundred people with about two hundred households. This was one of the
villages that Plan first worked in and a lot more capacity building on water and sanitation has been done. In the
last FY the community benefited from the drilling of bore hole at Arujo primary school that also serves the
community. In addition the school is a beneficiary of a 24000 water tank supported by the organization. With all
the above the choice of the village as the roll out point could never have been so appropriate.
The facilitators
Earlier in the quarter, one program facilitator, Philip Otieno, attended CLTS training held in Tanzania. The
facilitator having acquired vast experience in the methodology then took the rest of the staff in the DA through the
methodology on Monday 9th July 2007. Other facilitators for the day included the DA water and sanitation advisor
and the Strategic program support Manager, himself a trainer in CLTS. The following day two teams were
organized to facilitate CLTS for both children and adults at Arujo primary school.
Tuesday 10th July 2007- Facilitating the process
Activity 1: Introductions and Climate setting
The facilitators set pace for the day by breaking the ice to the participants. The participants were required to
introduce themselves not just in their normal; names but also those names that they used when they were still
young. Some of the names indicated their strength during youthful times while the others were simply descriptive.
Take for example this old man who described himself as Ojwang ‘uoch mor ka mon tho’ simply translates to
Ojwang’ an impotent man celebrates at the funeral of women and Odipo Guok ocha Pesa’ meaning Odipo,a dog has
no business with money. The session was humorous and entertaining breaking the silence and putting the
participants at ease.
The trainers then ceased the atmosphere to introduce the task and the facilitator in charge put it just clearly,
“our objective is to come and learn from you together the issues on sanitation in your area.” The brief but
concise introduction allowed no room for over enthusiastic expectations that could be disastrous to the whole
process,.
Activity No. 2: Community Mapping
The facilitator in charge took their communities through the mapping process. Three points were established
being the area primary school, the main Homa Bay Rongo Road and Arujo River. Each member of the household
present then traced the location of their homesteads at the controls and in a while everybody was able to locate
the position of their homes using cut out manila papers with the household names indicated.
Activity three: Locating the shitting zones: Normal and Emergency
Of all the sessions, this was probably the most interesting. The facilitators became very bold avoiding referring to
the shit with much friendlier terminologies in the local language. Shit was thus called “chieth” which is the correct
name instead of other less ashaming terminologies like “losruok, minyaga or oko” which are mild and often
camouflages the real meaning. The disgust started right at that point and one woman posed in low tone, “who are
these people who boldly talk about chieth (feaces) like this?”
The facilitator then made the announcement that apparently sent chilling waves to the brains, “take the powder
and place it in the place where you go shitting first when in normal situation and two, when it is an emergency
case which requires immediate relief.” An outburst of laughter followed the announcement and some woman
covering her face said, “to ma wach matek machalo nadeni!” [What a difficult task this is!]
Slowly by slowly the powder started to be dropped in the same fashion as the shitting normally take place. One
interesting episode occurred, a woman noticed that her neighbor had placed the powder barely a meter off her
homestead and she remarked ‘ “ ehe so you have been shitting around my homestead? I am not impressed at all
with your action.”
In a while the whole of the village was apparently dotted with the shit and one old man calling himself Paka
Maridadi echoed “ hey yawa upielo ma ok ber.” [ Hey my friends you are shitting at an alarming rate.”
A keen look at the map revealed that settlements took a linear pattern a long the main road and around the
school. In total 43 households were demarcated in the map. Most of the shitting zones were bushes in the
unsettled areas. While a few indicated the latrines as their shitting areas even then they indicated spills to the
bushes because as one man observed, “not all of the members of my households use the toilets.” The session
came to an end amidst laughter and cheers for those who had placed more powder indicating more shitting.
Activity 4: Shit Aggregation
This was one of the most adored sessions. The facilitators in charge required each household to indicate on the
card how much shit they produce in a day. To make them participate fully, those who indicated less were ridiculed
as lazy people who do not eat properly and who have less food. One man retorted, “in my home we eat well and
me alone can produce up to 1 kilogram so being a big family I think we do about 7.5 kilogram in a day.” The family
was cheered for their hard work and encouraged to continue in the spirit. Each of the household then attempted
to beat the mark and avoid the ridicule. On average each family produced about 4kilogram per day. On
aggregation the total amount translated to so the following.
Duration of shitting
Amount in Kilograms
Per day
Per week
Per month
Per year
161
1127
4508
540956
Table 1: Amount of sheet produced by 43
household in Arujo Village
The facilitator then took a comparison to make it real and this he said was equivalent to 54 tones which is just the
same as 7 Lorries of sand! A wave of humor lit the faces as the reality struck and a young woman could not
resist sharing her view, she said ‘ yawa jodalawa upielo maok ber, lori abriyo te!” [ my village members you are
shitting too much, seven trucks of sand!] At that stance the facilitator went even on and suggested the soil could
smear about sixteen classrooms. An aroma of disgust spread on the face and Punde Chalre a man in the middle
age whispered, “I cant imagine using chieth to smear but it is true we are really shitting a lot.”
Activity 5: The transect walk
After the compilation the facilitators sought to know the end points of the sheet and the response was unanimous,
the river since it is the lowest point. At that stance the facilitator asked everybody to arise and take a walk to look
for the shit at the points of disposal. A serious stream of look quickly ran across the faces. Some became shy
while others amidst hesitation started the dreaded transect. In a quick while one old man announces the sighting
of one fresh shit just hours old and people move to view the shit while some only stand far off wishing they should
never come anywhere close to the shit.
Just then one man whispers and I get him just right, “I know where there are more shits this is just a tip of the
iceberg” The whole lot then moves straight to the bushes bordering the Arujo river bank and here the shits
become much more pronounced. It is at this spot that the lead facilitator gets the shit that was to be the
specimen. On sighting the shit, one woman could not tolerate the sight. She burst out in protest and disgust
terming the act as “uncivilized and totally undesirable.” The unexpected comment came from an old man whom
presumed there could be some support if more shit was spotted so he whispered and I just caught up with him in
time. He said to his companion, “why don’t I go ahead and shit in the bushes so that more of the shit can be found
in the bushes”
Everybody was then redirected to the shade here the sampled specimen wad to be used in the next session.
Activity 6: The Glass demonstration
The facilitator takes clean bottled water and asks for volunteers to take a drink. Without any delay volunteers
shower up. A moment of watch then follows when the facilitator takes a portion of the shit and adds into the bottle
then shakes. He then asks for volunteers to come out to take a drink. Nobody turns up and faces turn behind to
avoid a look at the disgusting mixture. One middle age man says, “I can’t believe drinking such water” He forgets
that earlier on he had consented drinking water mixed with feaces from the river! The facilitator ceases the
opportunity and thanks the audience saying, “we came to see how you drink and eat feaces and we have just
confirmed it. Thank you so much for all that and continue eating the feaces. Our duty is done and we have just one
more request. Since you are such good in eating the shits, we ask that you pose for a snap so that your pictures
can be viewed far and wide in the internet as professional “shit drinkers”
The protest
The suggestion by the facilitators that the community pose for a snap as “professional shitters” elicited bitter
responses from the participants. Below are verbatim recordings of some of the protests.
Box 1: Voices of protest
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How do you come all the way to tell us to continue eating and drinking ‘chieth’, I have three
toilets in my home and I will not tolerate such ridicule.” Dhier Osiko
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“I don’t think you came here to tell us to eat and drink shit. It is apparent there is still more
in store for us.” Opuk Jakinda
“You cannot expect us to pose for a photo in the name of shit drinkers; you must give us a
way forward” Ogwe Chalre
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“Kindly take note that this place is next to the road and even passers by cannot be excused.
If this is the case then we will need to devise a way to whip such shitters for a life lesson”
Thagruok
“What you should be telling us is how to avoid taking water mixed with shit and not this kind
of ridicule.” Guok Ocha Pesa
“Even if we committed sin we were in darkness just tell us the way forward because we are
now in the light.”
“Please take note that this place has collapsible soils and that it is not our mistake per se.”
Man
“In the past we had good timber that could act as support for the super structure but all that
is no more. If we were able enough we would have used slabs instead.”
“Continue teaching us do not think we are rebellious when we refute taking the photo.
Remember the Luo adage, ng’ech neno koda wang’e [ the monitor lizard sees with its own
eyes] A man
“I am going to tell my husband to construct the toilet right away. I will take precaution to
treat the water.”
“We have strict laws governing shitting around the water points otherwise the situation
would be much worse.”
Even amidst all these protest the facilitator remained emphatic, “If you are thinking that Plan or ministry of Health
will do for you latrines and tend to your shits then you are mistaken. If you want to continue eating the shit then
go ahead there is no problem.”
His statement stung like a wasp sting propelling the next stage of action planning by the communities themselves.
Activity 7: Action planning
Having protested to being snapped, the participants opted to share on the way forward. They indicated an urgent
appeal to all the members of the community to immediately embark on latrine constructions to avoid the drinking
of shit. Unlike in the other sections, the planning also included children plans. The children among other things
suggested stiffer penalties for those found shitting aimlessly and also to advocate beginning from their homes,
the construction of pit latrines. In summary the adults agreed to:
 Dig latrines as from 11th July 2007
 Maintain proper sanitation
 Take action for those shitting aimlessly
The day ended with discussions from children and adults