On Sunday, February 14, residents of Shauri Moyo Estate in Nairobi woke up to an eyesore, as piles of garbage were dumped right outside their doorsteps.
Kamukunji Road, which connects the estate to Lamu Road, was literally impossible to drive through as seen by Kenyans.co.ke.
The entire street was heaped with tonnes of garbage with some sections at least half a meter high.
Local residents revealed that unknown people dumped the litter in the wee hours of the morning.
"It's a common occurrence that we have been forced to grow accustomed to. It poses major health risks but what can we do?" posed a resident of the area.
"The streets are hosts to indiscriminate dumping of waste. Waste collection is delayed," he added.
There’s no segregation of waste either; everything from household to industrial and medical waste goes into the streets.
The stench emanating from the rubbish dump is choking, which is a major health risk for the hundreds of children growing up in the area.
The situation is no different in Kaloleni estate where piles of garbage are strewn outside houses, with some link roads completely blocked off.
The impending health issues could be catastrophic to the city’s residents, suggesting that immediate action needs to be taken.
The waste management crisis in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, is alarming, and it draws the attention of its residents.
Dandora dumpsite is the gazetted destination of about 850 tonnes of solid waste generated daily by around 3.5 million inhabitants in the entire city.
However, unknown contractors have allegedly been collecting garbage from the Eastlands area and dumping it in undesignated areas, leaving the local authorities with the task of cleaning up after them.
In June 2019, the NYS announced a plan to pay 10-month allowances to 56,000 youths under the Youth Empowerment Programme.
Nairobi generates about 3,000 tonnes of waste daily, according to the Nairobi County Sustainable Waste Management Plan. Uncollected solid waste accounts for 774 tonnes per day, while private recycling companies handle 654 tonnes daily.
However, NMS is only able to collect an average of 2,500 tons every day, up from the initial 1,000 tonnes per day that City Hall used to collect.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) announced that monthly clean-up exercises would commence in February 2021, as it steps up efforts to rid the city of garbage.
This as residents who flout waste disposal regulations were warned that punitive measures will be taken against them.
The exercise, which will cover all the 17 sub-Counties in Nairobi County, will take place on the first Saturday of every month.
In January 2021, NMS flagged off eight trucks for collection of garbage that has been disposed of haphazardly in Eastleigh and Kamukunji Constituency.
