Over 200 Nakuru residents of Kiamunyi and London Estates in Nakuru town on Friday staged a peaceful demonstration along the Nakuru- Eldama Ravine Road, over the failure by the Municipal Council over the failure by the municipal council of nakuru to relocate the current municipal dump site that since filled up.
Addressing journalists, the residents said that ignorance by the council to relocate the dump site or improve on road access has made council officers and contracted garbage collectors to dump waste by the roadside .
They said that the move has posed a health hazard to them as well as motorists plying the Nakuru- Eldama Ravine Road.
It is also a security threat in Kiamunyi and the surrounding areas with cases of muggings being reported daily.
Out going Nakuru Business Association (NBA) chairman Boniface Muhia said that should the local authority fail to relocate the dump site, then they will file a law suit against them.
Muhia said that the local authority had previously been allocated KES 750 million by the government for the purpose of relocating the dump site, but the money was returned to treasury after the council failed to meet the set conditions.
The council of Nakuru has unsuccessfully tried to relocate the dump site on a 4 acre land located near Delamere farm in Pipeline Estate after failing to go through the environmental impact assessment, which was bought at a cost of KES 4 million in 2006.
Residents of Pipeline Estate have also been resisting the move.
It is estimated that the council of nakuru collects an average of 30 tonnes of garbage in a day .
The residents have now called on the local authority to immediately cease dumping the garbage by the roadside and also terminate contracts awarded to individual companies should they fail to transport litter away from the road .
In a telephone interview, the Nakuru District Environment Officer Gilbert Birkachi said that they have written to the town clerk over the same but he has always turned down their directives to have the dump site closed .
Birkachi said that National Environment Management Authority(NEMA) will soon be suing the town clerk for violation of the environment policy.
Efforts to seek a comment from the council town clerk Wilson Mwita Maroa as well as the mayor Mohammed Surraw were futile as both were attending inter municipality sports in western kenya, as we went to press.
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