County satisfied with efforts to clean city

Pungent stench and ugly heaps of garbage, a year ago, painted various estates and streets in Nairobi eliciting protests from city residents demanding action by the Evans Kidero administration.

Nearly all backstreet streets and open spaces were filled with uncollected rotting garbage and the Dandora dumpsite was in a mess due to poor roads and breakdown of trucks.

Nairobi Governor, Dr Evans Kidero, confronted with these and put under immense pressure, fired his county executive Evans Ondieki and Leah Oyake as he went further to seek intervention of the National Youth Service (NYS) in clearing the garbage in a bid to make the city attractive again.

The NYS, did not disappoint as they stepped in and provided 40 trucks and 1000 personnel who assisted in clearing the garbage even as City Hall blamed El Niño rains for the mess in the city.

However, unlike last year when heavy rains made the Dandora dumpsite inaccessible, there are no rains today and the roads to the site have been refurbished.

The county pumped in Sh200million to renovate roads leading to the Dandora dumpsite in a bid to ensure more trucks make more than one trip to the site.

Dr Kidero also come under pressure after members of the Eastleigh Business Community petitioned City Hall protesting lack of service delivery including garbage collection in the area.

However this December most of the back streets in the city have been cleaned and garbage collected on time.

Timboroa lane behind Odeon Cinema now looks better as most piling garbage has been collected leave for human waste.

Other cleaned streets include Ronald Ngala and Kirinyaga road.

But on Moi Lane, the situation remains the same as sewerage flowing throughout the year is yet to get the county attention.

Steve Ngegi, a driver said waste water from a burst sewer line has been in existence since 2013.

He says that passengers cannot board matatus at the place as it is impassable by foot hence matatus have turned it into a parking bay.

In November the Nairobi Governor had told journalist that he was not aware of the raw sewerage and demanded his officers to take action but to date, nothing has been done.

George Ndung’u a conductor said the problem was mainly because the lane serves like a boundary between two wards — CBD ward and Ngara ward — hence its neglect.

However speaking to the Nation the County secretary Robert Ayisi praised the efforts that the county had made to ensure the city is clean over the festive season.

“I am amazed by the cleanness in the city. From Tom Mboya to Harambee Avenue to City Hall road I have not seen uncollected garbage,” said Dr Ayisi.

He added that the illegal dumping which was done within the city by garbage collectors was not happening as a team of anti-dumping unit was in charge of the CBD.