Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has formed a highly specialized team to deal with illegal dumping in the city.
The team comprises police, administrators and NMS officers drawn from all the 17 sub-counties of Nairobi.
“The officers will oversee the enforcement with punitive measures to be taken against those who dump garbage illegally or litter the capital. A team of NMS officers, government administration officers and police service will lead the enforcement exercise,” said NMS in a notice.
“Every household, business, an individual should be responsible for the waste they generate.”
The Nairobi City County Solid Waste Management Act 2015 section 36(2 and 3) says any person who dumps or allows waste disposal in any premises, land or any other place not approved for such disposal is liable to a fine not exceeding Sh200,000 or in default, imprisonment not exceeding two years or both.
The new development comes after NMS accused City Hall of being behind “saboteurs and detractors” strewing heaps of garbage that have made a comeback in the capital.
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“As saboteurs and detractors heap garbage, NMS and the people of Nairobi desirous and cognisant of their role in a clean environment are at work each day collecting 3,000 tonnes against meagre kilos collected in the past,” read a post by NMS on Monday.
This was after Nairobi governor Mike Sonko criticised the Major General Mohammed Badi led NMS over increasing piles of garbage in various areas across the county.
Nairobi Super Governor who is also the President of the Republic of Kenya and commander in chief of Defence forces Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Saddam Hussein really overworking in Pipeline Embakasi South Constituency. Keep up with the good job. pic.twitter.com/Unlz7MFIdM
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) November 8, 2020
However, NMS partly blamed the presence of garbage in some parts of Nairobi on City Hall’s failure to pay garbage contractors and frustrating NMS’s effort to engage the service providers by holding onto their contracts.
However, City Hall scoffed at the claims, saying NMS should carry “its own cross” and stop making Mr Sonko the scapegoat, adding that environment was a transferred function under the deed of the transfer agreement, making it the duty of the agency to address the garbage menace. “There is no politics at play. The garbage has been piling in the mentioned places for months. It is not a one-off thing,” said Mr Sonko’s spokesman Ben Mulwa.
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