In Kenya, an old roof is often mis­tak­en for a reli­able one. In too many schools, hos­pi­tals, and pub­lic offices, that assump­tion is dan­ger­ous­ly false. What looks durable may actu­al­ly bedete­ri­o­rat­ing because many build­ings from the 1960s and 1970s still con­tain asbestos, a mate­r­i­al once praised for its tough­ness and now known to be car­cino­genic. East­er asks every nation a moral ques­tion: what do we do when inno­cence is bur­dened with a risk it did not choose? No child vot­ed for this risk. 

The answer can­not be delay. The sto­ry of East­er is not just about the cru­el­ty of the cross; it’s also about the fail­ure of author­i­ty to act deci­sive­ly when truth was in front of it. Pilate saw the moment, gauged the pres­sure, and washed his hands. Kenya must not do the same with chil­dren learn­ing under aging roofs and patients seek­ing heal­ing beneath mate­ri­als that can release fine fibers into the air when dam­aged or dis­turbed. 

The sci­ence is more com­plex and seri­ous than many pub­lic dis­cus­sions rec­og­nize. Asbestos does­n’t just cause lung can­cer and mesothe­lioma. The World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, IARC, and ATSDR also asso­ciate it with can­cers of the lar­ynx and ovary, while evi­dence points to the phar­ynx, stom­ach, and col­orec­tum, along with pleur­al thick­en­ing, pleur­al dis­ease, and irre­versible lung scar­ring called asbesto­sis. NEMA warns that once released, the fibers can stay sus­pend­ed in the air for hours. A roof can there­fore become a slow threat, not because it falls, but because it sheds. Yes, it sounds as com­pli­cat­ed as it is extreme­ly dan­ger­ous! 

The dan­ger grows over time. Mesothe­lioma can take 30 to 40 years to devel­op. A stan­dard three-child exposed today might face that risk in mid­dle age. The sci­ence is clear. The shame is that the roofs remain.

Kenya has already been warned enough. In 2025, Parliament’s Pub­lic Peti­tions Com­mit­tee report­ed that NEMA had inven­to­ried asbestos in 19 coun­ties and instruct­ed the remain­ing 28 coun­ties to be sur­veyed with­in six months, includ­ing a med­ical sur­vey and dis­pos­al plan. Accord­ing to gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments and echoed in the peti­tion now before the coun­try, it was report­ed that 188 schools and learn­ing insti­tu­tions con­tained 3,180.5 tons of asbestos. That aver­ages near­ly 17 tons per affect­ed insti­tu­tion. A pros­per­ous nation should not bur­den its chil­dren with the threat of pre­ventable dis­ease. 

This is why the mat­ter must now move from words to action. Through an orga­ni­za­tion I stew­ard, we have writ­ten to the Gov­ern­ment. If the upcom­ing bud­get again fails to estab­lish a ded­i­cat­ed asbestos removal fund, pub­lish a pub­lic inven­to­ry, and imple­ment a super­vised sched­ule for safe removal and reroof­ing, we will pur­sue legal action to com­pel them to act in the public’s best inter­est. This is not just for show. It is a con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tion because Arti­cle 42 does not promise Kenyans a clean and healthy envi­ron­ment only when the Trea­sury is ready. 

Yet, urgency must be dis­ci­plined. Unsafe demo­li­tion can spread fibers fur­ther, which is why NEMA requires approval, licensed han­dling, trans­port, and dis­pos­al. But cau­tion is not an excuse for paral­y­sis. Nation­al lead­er­ship must fund and enforce mea­sures. Coun­ties must iden­ti­fy sites, coor­di­nate replace­ment roof­ing, and pro­tect local com­mu­ni­ties. Schools, hos­pi­tals, par­ents, unions, church­es, and cit­i­zens must stop treat­ing asbestos as old news and start rec­og­niz­ing it as an imme­di­ate dan­ger. Lead­er­ship does not cre­ate val­ue; it pro­tects, enables, or destroys it. 

And there is even an eco­nom­ic truth here. Remov­ing asbestos safe­ly and reroof­ing pub­lic insti­tu­tions can cre­ate dig­ni­fied jobs for Kenyan sur­vey­ors, licensed han­dlers, trans­porters, welders, hard­ware sup­pli­ers, and young peo­ple in every coun­ty. This can sup­port house­holds, not con­fer­ences. East­er ends with a stone moved away. Kenya must move this stone now. If the State still refus­es to act swift­ly, the courts must com­pel it to do so. Pilate washed his hands. Kenya must not. Think green. Act green.