On August 20, the media splashed a story of 30 offenders in Nairobi sentenced to community service that included cleaning City Mortuary for ‘spoiling the environment’ by urinating in undesignated places and littering.
The media quoted the Nairobi County Environment Chief Officer, Geoffrey Mosiria, thanking the magistrate for the conviction and sentence.
“We want to remind those fond of breaking the law that we shall not relent on this,” the Star quoted him as saying in a story published Wednesday August 21. “We have not suspended the law, we want this to be a lesson to the rest…we want to ensure Nairobi remains clean at all times”.
If Mosiria means business in keeping Nairobi clean, the uphill task is for the county government to provide waste disposal facilities strategically for use by law-abiding citizens.
Media should remind City Hall that isolated cases of action cannot lead to an all-time clean city.
Journalist should expose more on the city environment department’s responsibility to enable residents to dispose of waste in the appropriate way.
Reporters should survey of the central business district to ascertain the number of public waste disposal dustbins and interrogate whether their unavailability contributes to desperate residents and visitors breaking the law by dropping waste in the open.
This would offer the county administration a balanced view of the problems affecting city residents and visitors, when it comes to answering the call of nature or disposing of waste.
As land demand in Nairobi and its satellite towns increases, population is also growing, creating a huge need for a well-managed waste disposal system. Another job for journalists is to find out if the departments concerned are coordinating a strategic way of managing the well visible heaps of garbage in city markets and estates, and plan to convert this enormous waste into useful products including generating clean energy, which will spare the residents environmental pollution.
The media should ask experts about the best ways the county government can manage waste, not necessarily by taking it to the already full Dandora dump site, whose time for reclamation is long overdue.
Regarding people relieving themselves on open places, journalists should task the county health and environment departments what they are doing to set up modern public hygiene facilities.
Such facilities should not just be toilets but also have changing rooms and safe and clean spaces where mothers can breastfeed.
The challenges of a clean and safe capital city are far bigger than the recent arrests that may have been a mere publicity stunt.
