Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has reiterated his administration’s commitment to addressing the city’s garbage problem with a robust strategy.
“What we have done is that we have built the county’s internal capacity to collect this garbage. We have procured 50 skip tracks, 10 skip loaders, 24 tippers that have come in and 24 refuse compactors for us to build our capacity,’’ he said.
During an interview with Citizen TV on Tuesday night, Sakaja emphasized that his government is determined to implement radical and necessary measures to tackle the garbage menace effectively, particularly at the Dandora dumpsite.
Sakaja defended the county’s reliance on the private sector for garbage collection, stating that the focus is on building internal capacity rather than outsourcing services. He highlighted that the county has already awarded a contract to a Chinese firm aimed at transforming the Dandora dumpsite into a power-generating facility by utilizing garbage as a raw material.
“We have awarded a waste-to-energy to China International Electrical Engineering Company that is going to convert the waste at Dandora dumpsite into 45 megawatts of power,” Governor Sakaja said.
“They will also help us because that then becomes their raw material. There are countries that actually export garbage,’’ he noted.
“It was just business. So you pay people and contractors would be paid on the weight of garbage at the disposal site which is Dandora,’’ he said arguing that the tonnes were being inflated.
“A lot of these bills were untenable if you calculate the weight they are charging as if you collect 9,000 tonnes of garbage every day yet we know Nairobi’s production is about 3,000 tonnes of garbage every day.’’
Besides enhancing internal capacity, Sakaja said the county has also recruited a team of 3,500 young people- the Green Army- who are collecting garbage and cleaning up the city.
The governor said the Green Army is turning around the whole idea of sanitation in the capital city with a major focus on the sub-county levels.
“Everywhere you go, you will see young people called the Green Army. The green army is the biggest environmental employment of young people in Nairobi. The last time that we had young people who sweep our streets and collect garbage was in the 1980s,’’ Sakaja said.
“Before the green army, you would find a constituency like Embakasi West to Embakasi East, from Utawala to Mihang’o to Donholm, having three or four elderly people who are now about to retire supposed to collect garbage.’’
