The Nairobi City County government has unveiled 40 garbage trucks to help in the clean-up of solid waste.
Speaking during the flagging off at Uhuru Park Thursday, county executive in charge of Environment and Natural Resources Emma Muthoni said the garbage trucks will be used to accelerate domestic and solid waste collection in Nairobi, a venture that has been ongoing since the launch of Operation Ng’arisha Jiji in August.
“We are here to flag off the acceleration of clean-up of garbage in Nairobi as the governor had promised, and this is proof of his fulfilment of the pledge. This is an event designed to accelerate solid waste collection in the county and it is a climax of what we have been doing in the last three weeks since I came into office and it is set to continue,” Ms Muthoni said.
CONTRACTED
She said the trucks have been contracted by the county until City Hall gets rid of garbage in all Nairobi’s 85 wards, adding that the trucks will come in handy in the ongoing processes of cleaning up the city.
“This initiative is a stop-gap measure of the county government’s operations as it seeks to return to normalcy and is from a contractor hired by the county who will be paid after the end of the contract,” she said.
PILING GARBAGE
Ms Muthoni defended the county against complaints by some residents over increasing piling up of garbage in parts of the city with informal settlements such as Pangani, Dandora and Eastleigh being some of the worst affected.
There are piles of garbage especially in markets and even in the middle of some roads.
In response, the city official said the county government has been doing daily clean-ups adding that the process is not a one-off exercise that can be accomplished in a short time.
LITTER BINS
“We have been cleaning although there are still piles of garbage in some parts of the county. Like today we have a clean-up in Kamukunji, tomorrow and Saturday we will have another clean up. We will also start installing more litter bins from next week in downtown Nairobi,” she said.
Last week, Governor Mike Sonko also lamented about the amount of garbage in the county but blamed businesses, especially hotel owners for the constant dumping of domestic waste in the central business district.
These people, he said, pay street kids to pick up garbage from the backdoors of the hotels at night and dump it along lanes in the city.
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