Appreciating Hon Beth Mugo, St John's Community and Pygron

 I want to appreciate the 2 institutions and the Hon. Beth Mugo, Minister for Public Health and Sanitation. But before I do so, I want to share a story why I am appreciating them.

On Thursday July 19^st, St. Johns Community Center hosted a consultative forum at the centre where The Clean Kenya Campaign-TCKC was invited to talk to a network of youth groups, Pumwani Youth Groups Network-PYGRON. PYGRON runs waste collection in Pumwani and environs among other activities to earn some income.They came together to start honest income generating activities in order to avoid crime that has felled many of their peers.

During the deliberations, the main challenge facing such groups in Huruma, Pumwani, Majengo, Dandora is what to do with the waste once they collect. They have no trucks to cart it away once collected from residents. What then happens is that the garbage ends up along road sides and any open space with the hope the council will collect. They use hand carts to do the work. For fear of arrest, many such groups have resorted to dumping waste in neighboring estates at night. A war of waste is thus developing within the estates, especially the lowly ones. This challenge is probably faced by many others such groups across the city.

During the same discussions, the issue of toilets kept coming up, most of these things were abstract to me then, just the way we talk about poverty as an abstract concept but on Saturday the 21st when we held the Cleanup and awareness campaign in Majengo/Pumani, these things became very clear once we got into Majengo. I came face to face with these challenges, faced them, felt them and lived them albeit for a short while. Inside Majengo, things change.

While cleaning, I kept coming across plastic bottles filled with brownish/green liquid. Curious, I asked one elderly lady cleaning next to me what these bottles contained. She told me in Kiswahili, ‘hayo ni mkojo mwanagu”.For a moment, it struck me how things I take for granted can be such monumental challenge to some, like a short call in the comfort and decency of my toilet. Realizing my puzzle, she further explained that there are no public toilets nearby, the nearest being in Gikomba Market thus adults urinate in bottles inside their abodes and throw the mess outside because they cant make countless trips every time nature calls. During the day, they can walk to the public toilets for long calls but at night because if insecurity, they use polythene bags and dispose in the drainage during the day. Now, the mess and muck we had been struggling to clear from the clogged drainage was human waste, bottles of urine mixed with all sorts of other odd waste from households, including sanitary waste.Now, you can imagine the environment children playing around contend with on a daily basis!!

Let me get back to why I am appreciating Equity, St. Johns and Hon Beth Mugo. St. Johns has been supporting PYGRON through arranging for training for them, equipping them with skills and offering and encouraging them to seek opportunities within the community instead of resorting to crime.The forum we held was to discuss sustainable waste management.

Equity Bank, Gikomba Branch has been part of the community development committee. During the meeting on Thursday, the Branch Manager proposed to lobby the business community to buy a truck for PYGRON so that they could do a better job on garbage collection. He also promised free training for PYGRON on entrepreneur skills and basic financial management to ensure they are able to manage their investments better. He also promised that his branch would avail small loans for youth and women groups within PYGRON.

Hon Beth Mugo, Minister for Public Health and Sanitation send Dr. Omondi, a Senior Assistants Chief Public Health Officer at her Ministry for the cleanup and awareness campaign.

In her speech, she made the following key observations;

 

• That all of us should join hands to reclaim Nairobi from waste.
• That we must sustain and enhance the efforts to sensitize Kenyans to be more responsive to the needs of a clean and sustainable environment.
• That the corporate should take a lead in supporting environmental awareness campaigns.
• She recounted the call by Profesor Karega Mutahi that we set aside every 3rd Saturday of the month to clean our neighborhoods.
• That solid waste management is a challenge that affects and impacts negatively on health
• That we must all proactively confront this challenge.
• That town and county clerks must begin creating order within their jurisdictions and enforce the relevant by-laws.
• That we need to begin apprehending those who litter and make them account for their actions.
• That we educate the ignorant but ensure those who dump deliberately by roadsides and dealt with.
• That resident associations need to be empowered to act with regard to such deliberate acts of dumping.
• That it is time we instituted measures for separation of waste at source.
• That we begin viewing waste as a source of wealth.-Reuse, recycle and redusing-3Rs.
• She appealed to all law enforcement agencies such as police, Public health and all local authorities to apprehend those who litter and have them charged in court.
• Encouraged local authorities to ensure all markets have clean toilets that are also well lit. Proposed that measures be put in place to inculcate a sense of competition among towns.
• Deliberate steps to be taken to engage all actors. i.e City Departments, Partners, NGOs, Corporates, Schools, Religious Groups,etc to make responsible waste management sustainable through owning this process.
• That a clean Kenya is not only possible but noble hence the need to join hands to create clean and good environment conducive for living.

The Hon Minister made the following concrete commitments towards achieving some of the observations she made above;

·      Her Ministry will encourage Local Authorities and Environmental Health Departments within her Ministry to designate central garbage collection points within all estates to enable youth groups that wish to engage in separation and recycling to operate.

·      Her Ministry will pay special attention to help in designation of sanitary dump-site and provision of waste receptacles in selected cities, municipalities and big towns.

·         Her Ministry will work with stakeholders, including TCKC to enhance cleanliness of our towns through massive awareness and sensitization.

Dr. Omondi, on behalf of the Ministry, pledged that whenever we hold similar cleanup an awareness campaigns, the Ministry for Public Health and Sanitation will avail protective gear such as gloves, gumboots and nose masks.

I am appreciating these efforts because they are deliberate steps, they are the required action that we must all begin taking to ensure we are not overrun by waste.They are the things we must rally ourselves in order to tackle waste menace.

As we continue this journey of hope that we will deliver a fairly cleaner and safer Kenya as we turn 50 next year, I want to invite such deliberate acts of mitigation, such determination to rise above words and get down to action.

The two institutions, Equity and St. Johns Community Centre have joined our growing list of those who believe that a clean Kenya is possible and that we must put a stop to filthy, squalor and garbage ruling our streets, estates, neighborhoods, towns and cities.

A Cleaner and Safer Kenya is possible at 50 years next year.

Otieno Sungu.

Programs Manager,

The Clean Kenya Campaign-TCKC.

0729294743.