President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday launched a fresh clean-up campaign aimed at restoring the City of Nairobi to its lost glory.
He said the city was falling under the weight of garbage and reckless waste dumping which includes hazardous industrial chemicals.
“We must reject the dumping of garbage on our roads and chemicals in the rivers before we can truly say we have restored the green city in the sun”, he said.
Uhuru noted that the waste mismanagement was blocking the drainage system and must be addressed urgently.
The President spoke at the Juja Road-Outering roundabout where he launched the new initiative and participated in cleaning up the area.
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He was accompanied by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
“We have come today for an important exercise to clean-up our environment and protect it”, the President.
He was on his way to the Moi Forces Academy, Eastleigh to launch this year’s National Tree Planting Day.
The President said an earlier agreement with Governor Mike Sonko to clean-up Nairobi was never executed successfully despite huge resources having been paid to some companies for the exercise.
He said it is now time to give the youth, under the National Youth Service, the responsibility of cleaning up the city as one way to addressing the rising unemployment in the metropolis.
Responding to the challenge, Sonko defended himself saying he had inherited a “rotten” city from the previous administration.
He however committed to restore the roads, the drainage and offer health services to the residents of Nairobi City.
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