Nyeri town residents have started to feel the effects of the stand-off between the county government and Mathira constituency leadership over garbage disposal.
The feuding has led to an accumulation of heaps of garbage in Nyeri town after collection ground to a halt on Wednesday last week.
The areas most affected include the three Nyeri town markets, which generate tonnes of garbage a day. The markets are Mudavadi, Nyeri town open-air and Soko Mjinga in the CBD.
Simon Mberua, a loader at the Nyeri town open-air market, said waste has not been collected for a whole week and the town is developing a terrible stench. This has hurt business.
He said the foul smell is causing respiratory complications, among other problems, especially for those who have allergies.
The dumpsite inside the market is full and the refuse is overflowing to the nearby General Kariba Road near the lower matatu terminus.
The heaps, he said, have encouraged people to turn the road into a dumping site.
“If this situation persists for the next one week or so, traders along this road will have to close shop because no customer can buy while standing on a heap of garbage,” Mberua said.
He called on the county government to look for a lasting solution. The problem is the same on the estates.
Petronilla Waigumo, a resident of Kamakwa, said the skip on the estate is overflowing with garbage, posing a health risk to children who are out of school.
For her part, however, Environment executive Beth Karimi said the garbage has accumulated because the county government has nowhere to dump it at the moment. She said the county administration is trying its best to look for an option.
“We are trying our best but even if we collect [the garbage], we have nowhere to dispose of it,” she said.
Karimi said collection trucks are still loaded with garbage after they were barred from offloading at Karindundu dumpsite by Mathira leaders.
Keeping the garbage in the trucks for a long time is spoiling the vehicles too, she said. This has also prevented the trucks from moving around estates collecting garbage as they remain full of refuse.
“When we were prevented from dumping [at Karindundu dumpsite], our vehicles had garbage. So you can imagine they have had garbage since Wednesday,” Karimi said.
She said before an agreement is reached, the county will try to reduce the garbage by burning what can be burnt such as papers.
On Wednesday last week, Konyu MCA Eric Wamumbi turned away county government officials who had visited Karindundu dumpsite, a move that led to his arrest. He was later released without charge.
In a video clip circulated in social media, the ward representative is seen ordering county government officials, including CEC Karimi, out of the dumpsite.
Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua said the decision to stop the dumping of garbage in the area was made by all Mathira MCAs and himself.
Gachagua said no garbage from Nyeri town will be dumped anywhere in Mathira. He said Karindundu, where the county government is dumping garbage, is a residential area and therefore a health hazard.
The dumping site is also illegal as it has not been approved by the National Environment Management Authority, Gachagua said.
Edited by A.N