Efforts by Kiambu County government to maintain cleanliness in Kiambu Town have hit a brick wall following haphazard garbage disposal by defiant business people.
A spot check revealed that the business people have continued to defy orders to own smaller bins in their premises where they can temporarily discard their garbage on a daily basis before placing it at strategic places for ultimate collection.
As a result, large mounds of garbage have continued to pile behind Kenya commercial Bank in the town forming an eyesore and a health hazard.
Recently, the stakeholders spearheaded by the Probation department and the Kiambu County government placed a notice prohibiting dumping of garbage at the location, but the business fraternity has continually disregarded the directive.
The probation department through the community service orders (CSO) early 2014 launched a cleanup exercise in which an arrangement mooted that all offenders under the orders would be cleaning the town.
However, despite all these efforts there has remained no controls of waste management, a situation which raises concerns among town planners and stakeholders.
County probation officer Mrs Margaret Nyabuto said the residents and some business people did not appreciate concerted efforts by stakeholders to maintain town cleanliness.
“The town remained clean for only two days after the clean-up and later slipped back to the normal mess,” she said.
Nyabuto said for any success to be realised, county enforcement should be activated and penalties introduced to those who defy the rules.
So worse was the situation in 2013 that former Kiambu Town clerk Henry Wanyundi was arraigned before court and charged with failing to maintain cleanliness.
He was later released on a Sh500,000 bond after he pleaded not guilty to three counts of polluting the environment.
In yet another case, Kiambu Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache released a shopkeeper on a Sh500,000 bond or 300,000 cash bail after she pleaded not guilty to soiling the environment by discarding her solid waste in the open.