County given a month to clean trash site
A woman is scavenging through a heap of garbage at the Dandora Dumpsite in Nairobi on January 23, 2014. The Nairobi County government has been given a month to clear garbage in areas surrounding the Dandora dumpsite. FILE PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The county was also ordered to submit a report on the same. This follows a suit lodged by Embakasi North MP James Gakuya and some residents. They want the dumpsite either closed or moved.
- He said the dumpsite was near schools and posed a health hazard to children.
The Nairobi County government has been given a month to clear garbage in areas surrounding the Dandora dumpsite.
The county was also ordered to submit a report on the same. This follows a suit lodged by Embakasi North MP James Gakuya and some residents. They want the dumpsite either closed or moved.
Mr Justice Isaac Lenaola asked the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) to give a parallel report on the progress made by the county government in clearing the garbage.
The judge told the county government to first clear all the trash around the dumpsite pending a final solution to end the menace.
In the suit, Mr Gakuya and the residents said the site was responsible for respiratory diseases affecting a majority of people in the area and that continuing to dump the city’s trash at the site “would kill most if not all the residents.”
He said the dumpsite was near schools and posed a health hazard to children.
“Many children cannot go to school because they are sick. Those in school are also sick since the garbage has found its way into their compounds,” Mr Gakuya said.
Ms Betty Mwenesi representing the residents told the court that garbage from 21 sub-counties was being dumped in Dandora “where low income earners who have nowhere else to go reside.”
The case resumes on December 5.
