All Counties in Kenya are required to formulate an annual development plan which is a one year extract from the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP). Today we will focus on solid waste management in Kenya.
The Annual Development Plan (ADP) has to be table at the county Assembly by 1st September every year.
The document outlines projects which will be prioritized in that particular financial year. This is the document which will help you know what your county is planning to do for the coming one year.
As you may be aware, it is illegal for county governments to budget for projects which are not in the county plans such as ADP or County Integrated Development Plans.
The ADP is closely linked to other plans such as the Vision 2030, Annual budget and of course the County Integrated Development Plan.
Nairobi City County is facing a number of challenges such as aging infrastructure, unavailability of land and sprawling garbage on the city streets and even polluting Nairobi River among others. Nairobi is not doing anything special or unique in terms of solid waste management in Kenya.
On Solid Waste Management in Kenya
Nairobi City County is planning to spend a total of Ksh. 2.6 billion on activities such as construction of weigh bridge ramps, install litter bins, procure refuse compactors, procure various equipment to use in managing the land fill at Dandora among other places.
I get disappointed when Nairobi County is just thinking how to maintain land fills instead of thinking how to convert the lots of garbage that we have wealth. Nairobi is not alone on this bad habit. Kisumu County has too spent millions in relocating Kachok dumpsite to Kajulu area in Kisumu East. Tax payers would have received more value if the good professor His Excellence Governor Peter Anyang Nyong’ could have spent the resources in recycling the waste/garbage produced by himself and his electorates (everyone is a culprit of garbage production including myself when I visit the lakeside city).
Do our bureaucrats and politicians who seem to be having a lot of power know that garbage can be converted into wealth?I doubt it. Solid Waste Management in Kenya is largely unexplored.
Do they know that garbage can be converted to energy through use of incinerators? I doubt it. Here we have to be careful because incinerators are not the best. Recycling is the keyword which should be underlined.
I wrote about this subject matter a few days ago. It was during the World Habit Day 2019 and the theme went something like “…converting garbage into wealth.”
While Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa counties are sleeping on opportunities other global cities are zooming by just like KINGCHOGE did in Viena. The rest of the world is quickly phasing away land fills. This means these global cities are recycling all their waste and even importing waste from other countries to feed their wealth churning machines!!!
It will all start by sorting our garbage into various categories. Kitchen waste and other biodegradable waste can be converted into compost manure and be sold to Nairobi farmers in Ngong, Kasarani, Kiserian, Rongai, Waithaka among other places where farming happens. That is the wealth we are talking about.
Nairobi City County, let’s wake up from our deep slumber and day dreaming. We do not need the dumpsites. What we need are machinery and technologies for converting waste into wealth. Recycling everything which can be recycled. Instead of our leaders visiting foreign capitals to party, we can learn from those countries by visiting successful projects and borrowing a lesson or two from them.
Why should we allow our residents to throw away food remains when we can convert it into animal feeds and create jobs in the process. You sleeping county officials responsible for garbage management. Wake up and do something. Nairobi can do without a land fill such as Dandora. Let us stop thinking how we can transport more garbage to Dandora. We can do better on this front.
Mike Sonko Promises on Solid Waste Management:
In his manifesto in 2017 Mike Sonko made the following promises:
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Kick-start the power generation plant: We will find the title to the 46 ha Dandora dumpsite and initiate discussions on the proposed power generation project;
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Introduce a better garbage collection system: we will change the current garbage collection system based on weight and distance traveled (which encourages garbage accumulation) to a new and area based system (which encourages more collection); –
Source: The above extract is from Sonko & Igathe 2017 Manifesto.
There is need for us to find out how far he is from delivering on the above promises. However, as you can note, the promises are ordinary. There is nothing innovative about them. More needs to be done to recycle the huge piles of garbage we generate every single day.
Read More: Top 10 countries converting waste into wealth
I hope you have been inspired by the article above to enable us start the process of converting waste into wealth. Even the private sector can start the process. However, I am not naive because I know that relevant policies, laws and legislations must be in place to make this dream a reality.
Sweden, Singapore, San Francisco, Austria, Germany, South Korea and Belgium among others are doing it.
Talking of Austria, one Kenyan by the name Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record in the country’s capital city Vienna by running 42 km marathon in less than two hours. To be specific he clocked 1:59:40. We are very proud of this Kenyan! This is the first time a human being has been able to do that.
Why this story when we are talking of converting garbage to wealth. My main aim is to tell you that it is possible to do it in Nairobi City. Austria is already converting garbage into wealth. We can do better than them right here in the Kenyan capital: Nairobi.
One day when we become a recycling champion, we will run out of garbage and then we will ask Mombasa and Kisumu to pay us to recycle their garbage. Most likely we will cross the boarders to Kampala, Dar es salaam, Dodoma and Juba for garbage as the new source of gold.
Thank God we have the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), we will have it transport all garbage from Mombasa for processing in Nairobi. The Lamu Port Southern Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Development project such as a network of highways and railway lines will make it possible to transport garbage from Juba and other major urban areas. We will ask them not to worry about find landfills for their garbage. They just send it to the capital city and of course pay us for relieving them of their burden of stinking garbage which we will convert to gold.
I know now that the doubting Thomases are thinking that I am out of my mind. Yes, that sounds crazy but it is happening elsewhere. United Kingdom pays Sweden 36 Euros for every tonne of garbage exported to Sweden for recycling. The seller pays it’s a different model here. Forget the economics and commerce you studied in college.
Yes! Sweden ran out of garbage to recycle or turn into compost manure. Welcome to my world of serious thinking and dreaming.
Bonus highlights on Nairobi health sector
- Health sector is likely to be allocated Ksh. 8.1 billion in 2020/2021 out of which Ksh. 800 million will be spent on development activities;
- Ksh. 5.1 billion will be spent on paying salaries, wages and benefits for employees;
I will continue with this story tomorrow when I have more time and space. Subscribe to make sure you do not miss anything.
Thank you.
