When Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja took over the office in 2022, he promised to curb the garbage menace in the city which has been a perennial problem.
A day after taking oath of office, his first stopover was at Mukuru slums where mountains of garbage had piled up ahead of the 2022 general elections.
It was during this time that most of the services under the County including garbage collection had been forgotten as the city waited for the new regime.
Slightly over two years on, it seems the garbage problem is still giving the county boss sleepless nights.
On March 9, 2024 Sakaja disclosed that the battle to instill order in the city and specifically sorting the garbage problem is still a challenge.
“There are private service providers who are hired by estate residents, whenever they see that there is a lot of traffic to Dandora dumpsite or the queues are long they dump in illegal points,” the governor disclosed.
“They also dump on the fields and on the roads at night so as to make many trips, we need to assist each other on that,” he added.
Sakaja made the remarks while meeting National Government Administration Officers and National Police Service drawn from Nairobi.
Sometime in 2022, a special unit dubbed County Environmental Compliance and Monitoring was formed to pursue those dumping illegally, even though Sakaja has confirmed that illegal dumping is still happening.
The admission by the governor that some individuals using garbage to make quick bucks has also elicited mixed reactions from city residents.
Recently Muthurwa market chairman Nelson Githaiga said that the garbage problem in Nairobi needs a proper approach to fix it once and for all.
The market leader revealed that garbage collection in the city is a business that involves cartels and some county officials.
“Garbage is paid in tonnage, that is why those contractors wait for the waste to pile up for weeks so that they can collect,” he explained.
“Muthurwa market has been turned into a dumping site because all the wastes from the city centre are brought to the market. Ideally the garbage is supposed to be collected on a daily basis,” he explained.
To solve this, Githaiga explained that the county government ought to station a truck in the market so that traders can dump there before being transported to the dumpsite.
“Cartels and City Hall have turned the collection into a business but it puts people’s lives in danger because next to the collection points are traders who sell vegetables and fruits. In case of an outbreak of diseases many will be affected,” he said.
“The mountain of garbage usually blocks the access road to the market which messes with infrastructure mostly during the rainy season because the sludge is acidic,” he added.
This has been the case in some other estates, mostly slums where garbage piles without being collected for several weeks in places like Embakasi, Kayole, Mukuru and sections of Juja road.
