By Rawlings Otieno and Roselyne Obala

Nairobi, Kenya: Nairobi County administration has designed a plan to get rid of the city waste products that have been a challenge to previous local authorities.

The project, to take full effect in the next three months, is aimed at making Nairobi a world-class city and county.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero said the cleaning process of the Central Business District and the estates also includes clearing of all illegal dumpsites to ensure wastes are deposited at designated areas.

“We must have a clean environment. We want Nairobi to be a world-class city and this begins with ensuring we maintain cleanliness,” he said.

But as Kidero embarks on restoring Nairobi’s lost glory, he has an uphill task of increasing trucks for garbage collection from the increasing Nairobi Metropolis population.

And to address the environment, water and sanitation problems, a budget of Sh224 million will go to solid waste management, while yet to be purchased solid waste vehicles will cost Sh400 million.

Nairobi produces more than 2,000 metric tonnes of garbage a day with an internal flight of 12 city trucks, of which, on average, only six are in working condition at a given day. As a result of bureaucracy, poor routine maintenance exercise has hampered the effective operations of cleaning the city by collecting the waste, compelling City Hall to hire other companies to collect the waste.

“The City is divided in 18 divisions, of which many areas are contracted to private companies to collect the garbage,” disclosed Environmental Director Leah Oyake.

In this year’s budget tabled by the governor last week, City Hall plans to use Sh520 million to pay the contracted solid waste transporters across the 17 city constituencies.

Private firms

Oyake says areas designated within the CBD have been left to City Hall to manage for efficiency and effectiveness, while other areas are under the private companies.

Dr Oyake, however, said due to the financial status of City Hall, there has been poor collection of rubbish resulting in poor performance by the contracted companies.

To address the matter, Kidero’s administration had initially proposed to buy 120 vehicles to handle waste management. They later agreed 50 trucks be factored in 2013/2014 financial year, which will see City Hall manage the collection of waste within the CBD and its environs.