Speech by Hon Beth Mugo- Minister for Public Health and Sanitation

SPEECH BY HON BETH MUGO EGH, MP AND MINISTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION

DURING THE OPERATION RECLAIM NAIROBI FROM WASTE ON 21^ST JULY 2012 AT ST JOHNS COMMUNITY PUMWANI.

The Chief Executive Officers from various organizations,

Representatives and departmental heads from other Ministries,

City Council of Nairobi

Distinguished Guests,

All the residents of Pumwani,

All Protocol Observed,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to join you today to host operation reclaim Nairobi from waste. This is a noble undertaking that should be promoted and Practiced by all Kenyans without exception.

In this connection, I wish to appreciate The Clean Kenya Campaign – TCKC and all the Friends of TCKC who have made this Campaign in Pumwani a success today.   As we thank you, we also appeal to you to sustain and enhance the efforts to sensitize Kenyans to be more responsive to the needs of a Clean and sustainable environment.

Ladies and Gentlemen

This is a campaign that all Cities, Municipal and other town CEOs in Kenya should embrace and actively participate in. I therefore want to recall and remind the CEOs of Prof Karega Mutahi’s call to set aside every 3rd Saturday of the Month from 7.00a.m to 9.00a.m for this noble exercise made in his speech to inaugurate the World Clean up Day at Umoja in Nairobi. This is an event that I personally have expressed support and in

which I wish to request every Kenyan to participate.

Solid Waste Management is a challenge that affects all the urban areas and impacts negatively in health as heaps of garbage form good breeding sites of disease vectors such mosquitoes and rodents.

It must therefore be confronted proactively by all. In this connection, I want to urge all stakeholders, particularly town and county clerks to create order within their areas of jurisdiction and enforce the relevant by-laws. Let us work

Together to apprehend all those who litter our urban areas and require them to account for their actions. However, as we do that we must also spend time to educate those who may be ignorant. As we educate the ignorant, let us make sure that those who deliberately dump garbage by the roadsides are brought to book. In this regard, residents’ associations need to be informed and empowered to act.

It is also time we instituted measures to separate waste at source. It is important for our people to start viewing waste as wealth by embracing the principles of Re-using, Re-Cycling and reducing (3Rs). Working with my colleagues from the relevant Ministries, we will encourage industrialists, to work closely with the Youth and Women groups who are working in the areas of Waste Management to buy the waste that has been well separated at source from these groups. To this end, we will encourage Local Authorities and Environmental health department within my Ministry to designate central garbage collection points within all the estates to enable such groups operate. The Local Authorities should also engage in training people on the separation of solid wastes into different types.

Ladies and Gentlemen

There must be order and discipline in our lives and the work places. It is disheartening to see people throwing out garbage, cans and other solid wastes as they drive along the roads. I appeal to all law enforcement agencies such as the police, Public health   and all local authorities’ askaris to apprehend such people and have them charged in court for littering our towns, neighbourhoods and countryside.

As part of the demonstration that Nairobi can be reclaimed from waste can be a reality, my Ministry, working with local authorities will pay special attention to help in designation of sanitary dumpsites and provision of waste receptacles in selected cities, municipalities and big towns to make them a good example of what a clean market should be. In line with this effort, local authorities are encouraged to ensure that all the markets have clean toilets that are, also well lit.

As Kenya celebrates her 50 years of independence next year, I wish to appeal to all the local authorities in Kenya to ensure that as we celebrate, we do so within clean environments. To this end we will be working with relevant stakeholders, including TCKC, to enhance cleanliness of our towns. It is proposed that measures be put in place to inculcate a sense of competition among towns. We invite all our Partners, including the Corporates and any other willing Partner to work with us in giving incentives to urban authorities that wish to engage in clean-up campaigns.

In order to make responsible waste management sustainable, deliberate steps need to be undertaken to engage all actors i.e. City Departments, Partners, Corporates, NGOs, Schools and Religious Groups, just to mention a few. To realize our rights on clean and sustainable environment, it is important for this exercise to be owned by all stakeholders.

In conclusion, I wish to stress that a clean Kenya is not only possible but also noble. As such, let us all join our efforts here, today, tomorrow and always in creating a clean and good environment conducive for healthy living.

I thank you. God bless you, God bless Kenya our motherland.

The Speech was read on her behalf by Dr Gamaliel Omondi- Senior Assistant Chief Public Health Officer at the Ministry during the Clean up Campaign at Pumwani on the 21st July 2012.