City litter bins too tiny, residents say

For some months now Nairobi Metropolitan Service has been putting up new litter bins within the city centre in an attempt to sort the garbage problem.

However, the project which was done in collaboration with an advertising company has elicited various reactions from Nairobians. While some feel this is a good move, other residents have claimed that the litter bins are too tiny and a bigger part is taken by advertisement space.

The bins have been put up along city streets among them Kenyatta Avenue, Mama Ngina and Muindi Mbingu areas leaving a larger part of downtown areas with old bins.

"The bins are too tiny for the city that produces tons of garbage on daily basis, I think the person behind the idea did it in hurry," noted Julia Kibe.

She added, 'The bins should have been raised a bit, instead acres of space that have been reserved for advertising, forcing those dropping the litter to bend too much so as to drop any kind of waste.'

Another resident, Alphonce Ndegwa says planting the litter bins permanently on the streets was not a wise idea altogether.

"Some of these permanent bins have occupied large spaces, NMS ought to have introduced large, plastic mobile bins like those available in some estates, they are easy to load in garbage trucks," he said.

Peter Maina, a trader within the city centre however challenged NMS to extend their service and deal with those peeing on some streets during the daytime.

"The city is in a mess; the worst part is that some vagabonds are peeing on the streets in broad daylight.

The administrations are only focusing on uptown yet the whole city of city centre is in a disarray. We hope someone will rescue us," observed Maina.