Two United States (US) citizens Justin Imamura and Venesa Rogie on Monday, March 13, flew to Kenya to clean up the Ewaso Nyiro River admitting that they were alarmed by the absence of trash services in the area.
Speaking to the East Bay Times, a US daily newspaper, the two, who are part of a cleaning foundation founded in San Jose, California, known as Trash Punx, explained that they noticed that the town, which was about 60 miles away from Maasai Mara National Reserve, did not even have garbage bins.
The duo, Trash Punx founder Imamura and Conservation Manager Rogier, added that the area had a weekly livestock and produce market which contributed to the poor state of trash disposal into the river.
Additionally, they explained that the cleaning exercise would be in partnership with a Masai elder and warrior they had earlier contacted.
“We’re going to keep this town clean. It’s a major health issue and we want kids to be able to walk safely to school,” Imamura stated.
Moreover, Imamura stated that after the exercise, they would create a high school stewardship team who would be in charge of sensitising the community.
“We have brought along bags of gloves, litter sticks, first aid kits, hand sanitiser and volunteer vests. We will also be working with local residents to make garbage cans from scratch,” he added.
The duo also revealed that they would provide funding for a dump truck that would collect and rightly dispose of trash every month in the area for a year.
Trash Punx is known for its cleaning activities across San Jose and has been engaging in cleaning activities in San Jose in California including organising clean-up and recycling events.
The former professional drummer stated that he decided to start the group because he was fed up with seeing his home town filling up with trash.
On February 13, they rallied the public in San Jose to clean after a storm that had caused damage leaving a lot of trash and garbage behind.
The founder estimated that they had cleaned up over half a million tons of trash since the group was formed in 2017.
