Corruption remains one of Kenya’s biggest threat
to development, every successive year Transparency International lists our
beloved nationamongst the most corrupt
nations on the face of the earth .It’s not something to beat our chests for,
it’s not like marathons and javelin that we should be proud of, no, it’s
something every same person should be condemning.
According to Transparency international, the bad performance
can be attributed to incompetence and ineffectiveness of anti-corruption agencies
who have failed to punish alleged corruption offenders. The Judiciary, Department
of Public Prosecution and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission were pointed
out as institutions that have contributed in high corruption levels, they have
failed in the war against corruption.
As a ‘mwananchi’ in the streets am left powerless
and confused and at the mercy of these corrupt powerful people who make life very
expensive and lead to increased poverty.
County governments are in a good position to
bridge the gap between the haves and have nots. Through proper distribution of
resources and good governance it is possible to fight the ever increasing rates
of poverty and to bring the numbers down. But with entrenched corruption I
doubt any positive gains are going to be achieved, more poor people will
continue languishing in pain and wallowing in immeasurable poverty. These
people are suffocating public coffers for their own selfish gains with utmost
impunity. Anything to stop this open thievery must be top priority.
It is saddening that the youth now see corruption
as an easier way to wealth creation.
Reports of maddening and unthinkable amounts spent
on buying goods and services are all over- we all remember the Ksh.109,000 anti-carcinogenic
wheel barrows of Bungoma, Ksh. 2m Facebook account opening fees of Muranga, fat
sitting allowances and generally spending that raises so many questions. Some
with our taxes allegedly have hired gangs to walk around intimidating critics.
Without doubt things are going haywire, MCAs now overstocked with power are unrivaled,
they are demigods- instead of being the watchdogs they can be seen every day
strolling the corridors of governors offices, looking for kickbacks, to move certain
motions in the assemblies.
To effectively reduce poverty in Kenya, runaway
corruption must be eliminated. It is imminent that vision 2030 might just be a pipe
dream. Corruption will always pull us down, and it must be fought.
It’s good that the president came out strongly to
condemn and show the public his stand on corruption, using tough words and stun
face but words and stun face alone and no actions will not fight corruption. It’s
time for a turnaround, those well written speeches that move masses must be
moving thugs to jail. Corruption now a National security problem must be axed;
laws must be enacted and implemented.
We voted for devolution because we believed in it,
we went back in the ballots and brought in people we had faith in, but by default
almost all of them have proved to be the wrong choices, most have pending court
cases, we wish we could do something but it’s so late, we can only watch as
they use our resources to campaign for their reelections, bad for us.
Plastic bags should be banned, the level of damage they are
causing mother nature is astronomical ; millions
continue being produced every day,
millions of them get dumped in the wrong places and sadly enough almost zero of them get recycled.
In fact comparing plastic bottles and their sisters the
plastic bags, more plastic bottles will end up in recycling factories while the
bags find their way in our rivers, drains, landfills, lakes and in our animals.
This is because plastic bottles are thicker and require little sorting and
cleaning unlike the nylon bag.
All that beautiful, ‘’prestigious’’ plastic bag branded
Tuskys,Naivas,Nakumatt, Bata etc that we
use every day for shopping is a poison to our environment . THINK ABOUT
IT.
There are fallacies
that we can recycle all plastic bags and that’s what plastic pro lobbies make us
believe, while the plain truth is that it’s not economically viable to recycle
plastic bags, it’s expensive to recycle them because of their thickness; they
are so thin, one will need to collect a bunch of them to make anything worth
the hustle, second they are very
flimsy, easily carried away by wind and
rain which makes it difficult to collect them , sorting them from other trash is
a challenge. They are used in most household to store all type of waste
-biodegradable waste- like potato peelings, leftover food and other myriad of
waste and in most cases inside the bags are other plastic bags mixed with rotting waste that
essentially compounds the problem, nobody wants to touch rotting things. It is
therefore a very expensive venture to even think of recycling plastic bags.
Most would rather collect bigger plastic materials.
When it’s so cheap to produce new plastic bags why would
somebody invest in recycling?
Plastic bag is a symbol of environmental wastefulness
–what’s the logic behind producing a single use bag that will last for hundreds
of years destroying the environment and killing animals on land and in oceans?
Did you know that
plastic bags in our drains are habitats for mosquitoes and therefore breeding
grounds for malaria, did you know that we spend so much collecting solid waste,
70% being plastic bags that will never be recycled and only lead to filling up
our landfills? To somebody who is conscious about the environment, that is a
threat to our lives.
Drastic actions
including banning plastic bags or at least introducing a direct charge for
every bag given to a customer by shopping malls should be introduced, so that
shoppers will feel the pinch are reuse more. Scotland introduced a 5p charge
for every plastic bag a shopper takes home, the number of plastic bags
littering their environment has plummeted since the ban was introduced.
Manufacturers who are the major polluters should be made to
track down what they produce, if they argue plastic bags can be recycled they
should be in the for front recycling it, otherwise the only viable way to deal
with plastic bags is banning them in totality, Rwanda is a perfect example that
indeed human beings can comfortably live without a single sheet of these
environmental degrading sheaths. Mauritania is the newest country to ban
plastic bags; this only shows how dangerous these bags are.
A lot has been said about Nairobi garbage and a lot must be
done, Nairobians have for the last few weeks taken to social media to lament,
the buck stops with each one of them as it stops with our leadership. Whenever
you go to a supermarket ask yourself do you really need that plastic bag, why
not just carry your own reusable bag, that way less bags will pollute our environment.
Make smart purchasing choices. When buying an item you feel it’s already
wrapped, refuse for an extra wrapper; make a habit of carrying your own bag.
Banning plastic bags is a damage control mechanism, we need
that speed bump to control the massive amount of plastic pollution, and it’s a
scourge. The money spend daily on waste collection will reduce drastically; it
will be used for other development projects.
We cannot continue sweeping these issues under the carpet
anymore. The government, both county and National have a constitutional role to
protect the environment, they should begin enacting implementing environmental
protection laws. The society too must embrace better waste management to combat
this problem.
One quick question to you, what do you think happens to your
shopping bags once they leave your door?Possibly you have no idea; best thing
to do is to THINK ABOUT IT
John Githongo CEO Inuka Kenya holding a banner in support of the campaign on banning of plastic bags in kenya |photo by Jeremy, Nisisi
2015 was a great year – in fact, one of my best.My #IsupportBanPlasticsKe campaign, one I am
so passionate about,did so well, so
many supported it, and has reached so many people.I cannot but thank all those who made it
happen.
The history of my campaign can be traced back to 2013, when
I was still at the university doing my undergraduate degree.There, I penned several opinion articles
related to solid waste management at Nakuru’sbiggest dumpsite.I still have
newspaper cuttings of my published letters to the editor.In the same year, my classmates and I arranged
a small protest calling for the relocation of Gioto Dumpsite, my first ever
protest in Nakuru.I felt the rush as
we shoutedin the streets of Nakuru,
calling for Gioto Dumpsite to be closed.Those were the good days when the county government was still green, but
they didn’t know what they could do with a petition from the public, so our
protest fell on deaf ears that year.But our mission did not die, and I have learned a lot.With time, I narrowed down my campaign to
plastic bags mainly, because they are the primary source of waste in my town
and other towns.According to a report
By Nairobi City County,70% of all solid
waste is plastic bags.A report by Daily Nation said that a staggering 20
tonnes of plastic waste is collected every year from the shores of Lake Nakuru
– a worrying and ominous statistic.
Initially the hashtag was #BanPlasticsKe, but when the Cabinet
Secretary for Environment, Prof. Judy Wakhungu, tweeted that she was supporting
it I decided to change it to #IsupportBanPlasticsKe.My reason was to personalize it, to make it everybody’s project.The result was amazing, and is still amazing
almost 3 months since I launched it.We
hope that soon some serious measures will be taken, including banning these
plastic bags in Kenya.
Prof. Wakhungu’s tweet saying she supported our campaign
became a disappointment.I thought she
could be doing much morein her position
as a cabinet secretary.We are only
calling for regulations to ensure that only reusable
bags get into the market, banning all the rest – anything below 60 microns, or
better still, 100 microns.
Along the way, many people have come on board to support me
and the project.First, my friends in
the WhatsApp group streetnakuru (the
same name as my twitter handle).These
peopleare phenomenal. Without their
input the project would not have been where it is – Nawavulia Kofia!
So today I give them my shoutouts, and a cuppa coffee is on
the way too.
In no specific order:Koech, Rapportour, Incognito, Tapphie, Swamkidd, Dr.Muniu, Kimaani,
Jabu, Vincent, Mary, Martin, Annabel, Amos, Prince, Robertinah, Aaron, Azu,
Benard, Mbatia, Joyce, Branu, WanjiruM, Caisey, Edith,Dorcas, Charles,
Josymras, Kare, Mercy, Njery, Ogallo, Pierra, RonPeter, Sammy, Karanja,
SamPrince, Shiku, SupaHuka, Uba – nobody forgotten.You are dear to me.Thanks for taking up the campaign, thanks for
owning it.You guys are a godsend.Last year we met several times for uji atMaigos – this year we will drink coffee like other people in those
nicer places.So don’t leave the group
yet, we have more to talk about, more coffees to drink,and for sure more campaigns.
I cannot forget NISISI and Onward254 – thanks so much; I am
looking forward working with you in 2016.
And to the many who took the #IsupportBanPlasticskephotos without asking ‘’Hizo picha unaenda
kuuza wapi’’ – thanks a million. The photos are on my blogs.They will be among many I will be using for a
street exhibit.
Osteen Njenga from hivisasa.com – thank you.
P.S.
Thanks to all who supported the release of Baby Jeremy
(#ReleaseBabyJeremy) and Baby Godwin (#HelpReleaseBabyGodwin).Both kids had been detained in two Nakuru
hospitals just because their parents could not raise money to pay the bills.
Martin Gicinga, Samuel Kuria, Susan Kihika , Alex Blogger,
Kuria Mwangi , Sam West, Vincent Tanui, Eza and so many others – God bless you,
I salute you.
While I was hitting the keys to write this, my longtime
friend Abigail came and bought me a heavy lunch –
God bless her soul, it can’t
get any better than these.
Naomi and Suzanne Niles – thanks for reading the draft and
making a few edits .
Sometimes it’s not what you have that matters, but what you
do with it.
Two online petitions have been launched online calling for an outright ban on substandard plastic bags in Kenya on change.org and avaaz.org.
Non-biodegradable, plastic bags thinner than 60 microns are regarded
as non-reusable are causing an environmental hazard and are problematic
to recycle, according to campaigners.
A 2005 report by the United Nations Environmental Program, National
Environment Management Agency and the Kenya Institute for Public Policy
Research and Analysis, claimed that around 100 million plastic bags are
freely given to consumers in supermarkets, grocery stores and kiosks
every year and very few of these are recycled or reused.
Organisers of the petition claim these very thin, one-use plastic
bags are a ‘disaster-in-waiting’, choking lakes, rivers and blocking
major drainage systems in Kenyan towns.
In fact, according to a report by Magdalene Wanja (Daily Nation,
October 2, 2014), a total of 24 tonnes of plastic was collected in 2013
from the shores of Lake Nakuru alone.
The amount of plastic bags and wrappers in our rivers is staggering.
The Kenya Wildlife Service reported that the lake would soon be “too
toxic for the current aquatic life as well as herbivores that often eat
the same non-biodegradable material leading to their deaths”.
Also, the burning of these bags, which is common practice in Kenyan
landfills, contributes to air pollution by releasing harmful carbon when
burned.
Organisers of the petition warn that an outright ban is the only workable solution.
We have already
demonstrated our inability to protect the environment by reckless
dumping, a citizenry that is unaware and does not care, government
agencies that do not work, and NGOs that have forgotten their calling.
They claim that a ban on plastic bags thinner than 60 or even 100
microns is the only way to “cure this malignant tumour eating Kenya” and
that the only plastic bags to be manufactured in the country should be
both reusable and recyclable.
Recently the campaign was seeing support online with #BanPlasticsKe and #ISupportBanPlasticsKe trending on Twitter in Kenya.
In the UK, a 5p charge was placed on plastic bags in supermarkets to encourage the use of reusable carriers.
