Yesterday, some senior Judges and
judicial officers headed the call to lead in the awareness campaign by
physically taking up the cleaning of their courts. They showed by example their
belief in a Clean Kenya. This symbolic gesture is not only good for the
awareness campaign but is a definite challenge to all of us to keep our
environments clean. Many work places where we spend many hours each day are
in very deplorable conditions. Is it any wonder that we suffer poor health?
Yesterday, the Kisumu Municipal
council was also making a statement; the Mayor and Town Clerk have made a
deliberate commitment to make the City one of the cleanest in The Great Lakes
region. The Municipal Council of Eldoret a few weeks ago embarked on a Ksh. 700
million waste recycling initiatives to deal with the waste and garbage menace
in Eldoret town. As The Clean Kenya Campaign-TCKC continues to lobby
the country to embrace cleaner environment, we are happy to announce that the
campaign is, in the words of Mr. Emmanuel Lubembe, Head of Public Service
Transformation Department and Mr. Titus Simiyu, Provincial Director of
Environment-NEMA, becoming viral.
When
such deliberate steps are
taken by those mandated to ensure a clean Kenya, like the 2 councils
have
done, we must support such endeavors. The action of the judges was very
symbolic. The way we view our immediate work environments reflects
greatly on
how we deliver services in those offices but also how the public
perceives the seriousness of those offices. It speaks volumes of our
attempt not
only to clean the physical environment but the ethical and moral
environments
in which we operate. It is an irony of situations and borders on
hypocrisy to
be comfortable in physically dirty environments and expose moral and
ethical
cleanliness.
As we continue to lobby all who
are central to this process of ridding Kenya of filth, let us also announce
that TCKC
had a series of brief meetings yesterday with among others, Mr. Mugo Kibati, Director General-Vision
2030 Secretariat and he is very excited at the prospects of delivering a
clean Kenya next year as Kenya turns 50. We will be having structured
engagements with Vision 2030 Secretariat on how to proceed and ensure success
of this initiative.
Asmara is a clean city; Kigali
is also a clean city. These are our neighbors who have had far bigger
challenges than us. However, they have had a resolve to transform their
societies and it is paying off. Today, Kigali
is becoming a class destination in the region for tourism and investment. We
must make similar resolve to make our cities destinations for tourism not only
by cleaning them but ensuring they attract investment where possible; we ought
to strive to attract investors through turning challenges such as garbage into
opportunities.
On the 28th August 2012 at the KICC, we will host,
together with key partners the 2nd Consultative forum on separation
of waste at source and recycling. Invited are several key stakeholders whose input
will drive this national agenda forward. We will discuss the practical steps of
implementing separation of waste, we will look into ways of bench making waste
management and best practices, creating competition among towns, cities and
municipalities through Award systems, ways of engaging organized groups to
participate through investing in recycling waste, awarding and rewarding
innovation in areas of waste management, enhancing capacity and target scale up
of existing initiatives, short term training, knowledge and information sharing,
production of literature and documentaries on waste management and a host of
other areas that will ensure this is a take-off trans-formative national agenda.
We will definitely have several programs that ensure waste management opens up
investment opportunities, becomes a motivation for innovation, a front for
competition, a source and convergence of knowledge, a social and economic
network that makes us proud of our ability to foment home grown solutions
without looking for outward support. We have all the necessary capital as a
country, both human and financial resources to ensure such.
I must commend our key partners
but also welcome those who are coming on board. The list of those who wish for
a clean Kenya
is growing by the day; we have had a series of meetings with both public and
private institutions and the response is overwhelming, the desire and
expectations high.
It is for this reason that we are
doing our best to bring everybody on board because we are all waste generators
in one way or the other, this is a process that requires inclusiveness,
participation but above all, ownership by each and every one us of. None of us
wishes to live in filth and squalor. Several groups have approached both TCKC and NEMA to partner in this
initiative, a clear testimony that the campaign is reaching far and wide. We
welcome all on board.
We have embarked on a campaign on
all fronts, from our estates, informal settlements to our towns, our social media to the mainstream,
public and private sector, youth and women groups, councils, the highest
offices to the ones on the ground implementing policy.
On Tuesday the 31st July 2012, a Central Business District-CBD meeting with the business community
in River Road, Nairobi will take place to discuss how to
manage waste within the city. We are happy to announce that this has been
called by the Ward Manager, CBD. In our 1st Consultative forum on 11th
July 2012, all Ward Managers from all the 74 wards in Nairobi were in
attendance and a good number have found new impetus and motivation to make
their wards best practices.
We are happy to work with council
staff in all councils in driving this agenda forward.
We also appreciate all who have
dedicated support to this process in terms of resource mobilization, technical
and professional input, planning and documenting. We owe it to Kenyans to
deliver a Clean, Prosperous, Productive
and Peaceful Kenya.
C3PK.
Best,
Otieno Sungu.
Programs Manager,
The Clean Kenya Campaign-TCKC.
0729294743.
Blogspot; http://kcdnkomarockswatch.blogspot.com
Website; http://www.kcdnkenya.org
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