Attempts to reverse the ban on plastics should be resisted

Much as we love the convenience of plastic carrier bags, we must accept that they have been the cause of much environmental damage both on land and in the sea.

A single plastic bag can take up to 100 years to degrade.  Plastic bags are choking our towns and polluting our oceans. The food chain of humans can be affected when animals and marine life ingest plastics. It is estimated that every square mile of oceans has about 46,000 plastic bags in it. Despite the dangers, over one trillion plastic bags are used every year worldwide.

Kenya’s decision to ban plastic carrier bags should, therefore, be lauded and any attempt to reverse this decision should be strongly resisted. Kenya now joins the 30 or so countries that have either banned plastic bags or imposed levies on them.

RECYCLING

I have heard arguments about how this ban will affect Kenyan manufacturers and small-scale traders, but this is like saying that we must continue manufacturing a harmful drug because jobs will be lost at the factory that produces it. One positive impact of the ban is that it might lead to the growth of cottage and large-scale industries in unexpected places.

Village women making kiondo and other types of hand-woven baskets may find a ready market for their product. Recycling of plastic and other waste may lead to the growth of a robust recycling industry.

I just hope that Nema and the other authorities (particularly the police) do not use the ban to extract bribes from traders and ordinary Kenyans.

The authorities should also reconsider the Sh4 million fine for offenders, which is prohibitive by any standard.

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I must commend the people of Kiambu for organising a petition that forced their woman’s representative, Gathoni wa Muchomba, to retract her demand for a pay increase.

However, no such petition has been organised in Homa Bay, whose MP, Ms Gladys Wanga, is claiming that her Sh600,000-plus monthly salary is worthy of a beggar. Nor have the good people of Mbita asked MP Millie Odhiambo to step aside for expressing similar sentiments.

DEMANDS

These legislators, among the highest paid in the world, claim that they need to earn a higher salary because of demands for money from their constituents to pay for things like school fees.

Yet every Kenyan above the poverty line contributes towards the school, hospital or funeral expenses of those relatives, friends or village kinsmen who cannot afford to do so. (I just paid the school fees of three children who are not even related to me.)

Yet I don’t know of any Kenyan who has gone to his or her employer and demanded an increment because of these voluntary donations.

Instead of demanding higher salaries, these legislators should be drafting laws and policies that can improve their constituents’ overall economic situation so that they do not have to ask them for handouts, in the first place.

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Most people would agree that flying these days is a stressful experience, what with the multiple security checks and the increased possibility of being detained by security or immigration officers.  So when an airline suddenly cancels a flight, the experience becomes even more traumatic.

DOMESTIC FLIGHT

A couple of weeks ago, I was scheduled to take a 50-minute domestic flight from Nairobi to Malindi on Jambojet, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways.

A few minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, the passengers were informed that it had been delayed, and then two hours later, we were casually told that the flight had been cancelled.

By then it was too late for most of us to make alternative arrangements to get to Malindi, so we had no choice but to take the airline’s offer of flying us to Mombasa and then putting us on a three-hour bus ride to Malindi. 

We arrived in Malindi at midnight, tired, angry and disappointed. I suspect that most of my fellow passengers will hesitate to fly with this airline again.

This does not augur well for its parent company, Kenya Airways, which is already going through financial difficulties. I read somewhere that domestic flights make up the largest share of flights taken by Kenyans.

The budget airline Jambojet should take credit for this increase in passenger numbers, but it must also get its act together to retain those passengers.

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