- Earlier, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna blamed the massive flooding witnessed in various parts of the city to uncollected garbage in illegal dumpsites.
- Sifuna said there is a garbage collection centre at Umoja Innercore in Eastlands that has now piled and reached the power lines
Image: SCREENGRAB
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has warned that Private Service Providers contracted to manage solid waste in the city risk losing their licences for failing to deposit garbage at the Dandora dumpsite.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sakaja said all illegal dumpsites such as English Press and Diamond are henceforth closed.
“Those who go against the directive will have their PSP licences cancelled forthwith and their vehicles impounded immediately,” the governor said.
Earlier during the debate on pending bills counties owe contractors, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna blamed the massive flooding witnessed in various parts of the city on uncollected garbage in illegal dumpsites.
“We have a big problem where garbage has become a very serious menace and it’s contributing to the problem we are seeing with flooding because most of this garbage that remains uncollected in many areas ends up in our drainages and then you see people’s homes flooding,” he said.
Sifuna said there is a garbage collection centre at Umoja Innercore in Eastlands that has now piled to an unimaginable heap of dirt owing to non-collection of garbage.
The senator claimed the garbage has not been collected since September last year after the service providers contracted to collect and drop it to Dandora abandoned the work due to nonpayment by the county government of Nairobi.
“Mr Speaker, the garbage at Innercore in Umoja has now reached the power lines, that is how high up it has been stacked.”
Sifuna further claimed illegal dumpsites are located at an area around Likoni and Enterprise roads that has also resulted in flooding in the Industrial Area.
“And if you speak to business people who operate in that area, all of those businesses from Enterprise Road coming up to Road C to Road B are flooded. People are counting very serious losses because of noncollection of garbage and dumping of soil on the riverbed of Ngong River.”
In his statement, Sakaja announced the suspension of all excavations along riparian areas with immediate effect and urged inhabitants along riverbeds to relocate immediately to higher areas.
He said the floods had so far affected 60,000 people, claimed four lives and six others were still missing.
Kibra, Lindi, Mathare 4A and Mathare North, Baba Dogo, Githurai and Zimmerman are the worst affected by the floods, he said.
Sifuna acknowledged that the county government has been overwhelmed despite its efforts to manage the floods and avert more disasters.
He called on the national government and all the national emergency services to be mobilised to save lives
“I'm speaking to this house on a very difficult day for the people of Nairobi. As we speak right now, many of our people are marooned in their homes. I have seen videos of people on rooftops; some homes have been swept away, roads swept away.
“We have a humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Mathare Valley, especially in Hospital wards and Utalii wards and at this particular point in time, we want to acknowledge that the county of Nairobi for all its efforts is overwhelmed,” he said.
He said footbridges in places like Kamukunji and those connecting Kamukunji to Makadara and Embakasi West have been swept away.
The flooding witnessed Wednesday was worsened by the bursting of the Ngong and Mau Mau rivers in Nairobi and the Athi River in Kajiado.