Nema gives Nairobi County 48 hours to fix garbage mess

Nairobi County Government’s woes may be far from over with National Environment Management Authority (Nema) now giving City Hall officials a 48-hour ultimatum to fix the garbage mess or face legal action.

The environmental watchdog took to its Twitter page on Wednesday evening to issue a directive to the Mike Sonko-led administration to clean up the capital in two days’ time.

It further directed county officials to table a report on compliance of the same to Nema, failure to which the officials will face legal action.

“Nema gives Nairobi County 48 hours to clear all the uncollected solid waste that has littered the city and report on compliance to the Authority within 7 days, failure to which officers in charge will be prosecuted,” read the post by Nema.

It is, however, not clear who will be directly held liable since Governor Mike Sonko has since been barred from accessing his office following a corruption case. He has no deputy.

Garbage collection is a function of the county government in the environment ministry.

Nema Public Relations Officer, Evans Nyabuto said although Sonko has been barred from accessing office, there is the Environment Minister who is in charge of the docket.

“Waste management is a devolved function. Nairobi should not sink in garbage because the governor is not there, whoever holds the docket on waste management should put the systems in place unless Sonko says no,” Nyabuto said.

He added in as much as it is every individual’s responsibility to keep their surroundings clean, Nairobi residents pay their taxes and they deserve to get the services.