Nairobi News

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director- General Lt. General Mohamed Badi has vowed to crack the whip on garbage collection companies contracted in Eastleigh.

Badi, speaking on Thursday, August 12, 2021, at a meeting with the Stakeholders of the Eastleigh Business District Association, gave contractors a seven-day notice to collect the garbage or have their contract cancelled.

“The garbage menace should be a thing of the past because we have contracted 30 contractors to do the work. Next week the leadership of Eastleigh and myself will meet the contractors and if they fail to do their work here in Eastleigh, their contract will be cancelled because we cannot be paying for work not done,” Lt. Badi said.

During the meeting which was attended by area MP Yusuf Hassan, the EDBA led by its chairman Haji Ahmed Yare presented a six-point petition to the DG on the perennial water shortages, garbage, poor roads, and sewage, chronic traffic congestion, and damaged streets lights.

Badi also confirmed the government was working with the World Bank to upgrade the water pipes from the source in order to accommodate the growing demand.

“Water shortage is not only a problem in Eastleigh, but it’s also a problem in Nairobi. The water pumps we are using were installed back in the 70s. Back then the population in Nairobi was less than two million, but now we are more than five million. Since I told over the leadership of NMS we have dug 193 boreholes, but they are still not solving the issue of water shortage.,” he explained.

“But now we have the World Bank in partnership with the government who have taken up the issue. Currently, we are laying down new pipes and before June next year we will have the new water system running, and it will double the water capacity being delivered to the residents of Nairobi.”

Badi also noted the process of acquiring land to allow the piping has been expensive, as landowners were demanding much compensation.