Seven arrested for selling plastic bags

National Environment Management Authority (Nema) officers displays some of the bales of plastic bags confiscated in the county [Standard/photo]

Seven people found in possession of a total 3,800 bales of plastic bags have been arrested in the county.

Two of the suspects were arrested in Kapsoit trading center while the five others were arrested in Brooke trading center in the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) crackdown on the sale and use of plastic bags in the county.

A ban on plastic bags took effect in the country in August 2017.

Nema chief enforcement officer Robert Orina lamented the resurgence of the sale and use of plastic bags in Kericho.

"The plastic bags are being used especially by small economy traders because the bags are cheap for use to package especially groceries," he said.

Orina, said preliminary investigations indicate that the source of plastic bags were the neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda.

"Kericho is a transit route for the plastic bags from the neighbouring countries brought through the porous Busia border," said Orina.

The Nema chief enforcement officer vowed that the crackdown will continue until the plastic bags menace is eliminated in the country.

"We are determined to get rid of the sale and use of plastic paper bags in the county and country in general. We are ready to support President Uhuru Kenyatta to eliminate even the plastic straws used to take soda," said Orina.

He reminded members of the public that there are many alternatives to plastic bags which don't degrade the environment especially the country's open dump sites