City lanes become new dumpsites, as Nairobi chokes in filth
A pile of garbage along Daisy Lane in the Central Business District on July 28, 2022.
Lanes once used as short cuts by city residents to connect them from one street to the next, have now become dumpsites thanks to uncollected garbage.
Daisy Lane in the Central Business District (CBD) that connects Luthuli Avenue to Gaberone Road, is the latest to be affected adding up to the list of other lanes that have been turned into dumpsites.
“Nairobi is so filthy. Endless garbage heaps in residential areas and uncollected filth within the CBD. Will the workers be paid at the end of this month?” @Kenyantraffic tweeted.
Garbage everywhere
“Yesterday I visited Nairobi after very many months, its filthy, garbage everywhere, homeless people and street kids sleeping around the CBD. This is not the Nairobi I knew,what happened?” @MrNaibelTV asked.
“Nairobi County is very filthy & dirty. Did all NMS employees in charge of cleaning this city abandon their garbage collection duties to go campaigning because they do not seem to be working at all,” @report_taka said.
“Nairobi town is very dirty starting from Muthurwa market, there are heaps of uncollected garbage, hawkers, street urchins. It’s really a menace,” @Julie wrote.
“I took a stroll in Nairobi CBD today and found it choking with dirt and uncollected garbage. Coloured cabros that were done to announce to Nairobians that there is a new sheriff still exist. What’s going on?” @bonifacemwangi asked.
“When they started, our NMS was shining and I personally congratulated them for a job well done. A walk around Nairobi CBD now reveals that they have slowed down and the city is sliding back to old ways, garbage, hawkers, street urchins all over,” @ooloji said.
Efforts to reach Nairobi County government communication officer Tony Mbarige were futile as this writer's phone calls and texts went answered.
In the past few months, a number of things have been going wrong in the city.
For instance, traffic lights have not been functioning. From around 3pm at the Kenyatta avenue intersection near Sarova Hotel, it is usually a game of chance as pedestrians tackle motorists coming from all directions from the intersection.
This is due to traffic lights not functioning at all.
The Kenya County Government Workers Union had issued a seven-day strike notice in June of their intention to proceed on strike starting July 4.
Among the issues cited by the union are persistent delays by City Hall to pay their salaries, failure to complete promotion of all eligible staff, unwillingness to finalise CBA negotiations, perennial electricity disconnections, and intermittent NHIF medical cover due to failure to pay premiums and remit monthly deductions.
