Kisumu County director of education Silvester Mulambe has blamed the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) for the increased number of schools built near entertainment joints. Mulambe said that the environment conservation agency should take blame for lack of stringent measures on how the law should be implemented. “Complaints of noise from churches and entertainment joints that disturb schools should be taken to Nema because they are the ones that need to handle such complaints,” he said. He, however, said that due to devolution it would be a lot easier to monitor the schools that are accredited to set up entertainment joints in the counties. “With devolution, a lot of these cases are going to be a thing of the past because we are not going to give a go ahead to any school that wants to set up near bars or other entertainment joints,” he said. The county director said that there was need to ensure that the order on schools’ location was followed to the latter and the agency should be at the forefront t in ensuring that it happens. “As a county government, there might not be much we can do but Nema has the legal backing to help do this,” he said. Nema is a creation of the Environment Act (1999) and is tasked with formulating policies and laws that govern environmental conservancy. Mulambe now wants Nema to partner with county governments to ensure that the law is implemented. “The agency should partner with us and ensure that we implement the law as it is,” he said.

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