A hawker with environment friendly bags that were adopted after the ban(photo/the star)NEMA has been strongly accused by Haki Africa for allowing manufacturers to continue using plastic bags.
Haki Africa executive director Khalid Hussein in a letter addressed to Nema director general Geoffrey Wahungu on Friday,accused the body for unfair arresting and charging the public and letting manufacturers free.
“Wananchi welcomed the plastic ban, and were ready to abide by it,” Hussein said.
Mr Hussein called upon Nema to be fair to all Kenyans and prosecute everyone equally and not favour the rich and powerful.“The right to a clean and safe environment must be guaranteed by the government. All plastic bags, whether by industries, should be banned,” Khalid said in the letter.He noted that the ban is clear that anyone carrying, selling or manufacturing the plastic bags will get a jail term of two years or pay a Sh2 million-Sh4 million fine.
The NGO,raised concerns that some firms are still packaging bread and their products in plastic bags despite the ban.However, in response, Nema chief cooperate manager Evans Nyabuto, said some manufactures have been exempted from the plastic bags ban as plastic cannot be removed totally.“Certain manufactures have to write a letter of exemption under which there are conditions to follow in that the packaging should have the address of the company,” he said.
For instance,plastic bags used in primary packaging for example bread and sweets have been exempted from the ban.He denied claims that Nema is being partisan.
“There are many cases of manufactures who have been arrested and have been charged. It’s just that individual Kenyans are many than the manufactures and that is when it looks like they are the only ones being arrested,” Nyabuto said.The ban was affected on August 28 ,2017.