Protesting residents in Gikono area, Maragua at the public cemetery converted to a dump site by unknown people allegedly transport waste from Nairobi and Thika. [Boniface Gikandi, Standard]

A public cemetery at Gikonou in Makuyu, Murang’a County, has been turned into a dumping site.

For three weeks now, trucks thought to be from Nairobi and Thika have been seen after 10pm offloading garbage at the site, which is barely half a kilometre from the proposed World Bank-funded Sh1 billion Mitumbiri sanitary landfill.

James Mwangi, a resident, said the main suspects were hoteliers and healthcare providers. Murang’a County Environment and Natural Resources Executive Cecilia Kibe blamed ‘naughty’ garbage collection firms for the mess.