The Mountain Journal
A public cemetery in Gikono area Murang’a has been ‘converted’ to a garbage dumping site, endangering the
lives of the community in the locality.
In the past three
weeks, tonnes of waste have been dumped at the facility by trucks allegedly coming
from Nairobi and Thika towns direction after 10 pm.
The public protested
the dumping of the waste in the locality, which is barely half a kilometre from
Mitumbiri Sanitary Landfill presently under construction at an estimated Sh1
billion from the World Bank.
They protested after
scavengers from Nairobi started trooping in the cemetery burning carcasses of
dogs, and polluting the environment with smoke and other haphardaze materials.
Investigations
revealed that businesspersons in the major towns have pooled resources, hired
trucks to dump waste from their premises to avoid paying their respective
county governments.
James Mwangi, a
resident, said the county government should crack whip and arrest the
individuals transporting the waste to the area during the curfew hours.
Mr Mwangi said
hoteliers an8
d health care providers are among the notorious in the
transportation of waste into the area, adding that the rogue merchants take advantage of the unfenced vast area.
“We recently buried a
woman who suffered breathing complications suspected to have originated from
the burning of the waste. The county government does not have a public waste
management policy, that could be enforced,” said Mwangi.
Murang’a County
Environment and Natural Resources CEC, Cecilia Kibe said there are naughty
transporters who dumped the waste in the areas after 10 pm.
She said they
have engaged the Murang’a South Security Committee led by DCC Mawira Mungania
and police commander Alex Shikondi to support in enforcing the regulations, and
arrest the rogue businesspersons behind the syndicate.
She denied the county
government trucks involvement in the night operations saying there are
designated dumping sites that are used for the sanitation purposes.
“We have done our best
by putting the enforcement teams along the route but the rogue
drivers use shortcuts and keep on changing their dumping sites,”
said Ms Kibe.
Muranga South
Sub county administrator James Githii said they have been working with the
community to keep off the intruders.
“ Since the community
is alert, all efforts will be employed to arrest the trouble shooters,”
said Mr Githii.
Construction of
the landfill designed for 250 metric tonnes daily was last year interrupted by
Covid 19 and heavy rains.
Three years ago,
Murang’a leaders including the senators Irungu Kang’ata, and MPs flew to Durban,
South Africa to learn how landfills operate, while the MCAs were taken to Arusha, Tanzania for a
bench marking on waste management.
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