By Dickens Wasonga in Kisumu.

Kenya’s Minister for Local Government Musalia Mudavadi has ordered the municipal council of Kisumu,the country’s second largest city to stop dumping garbage near the council’s sole stadium.

Musalia who is also a deputy prime minister urged the councils town clerk Daniel Nkere and the city mayor cllr Sam Okelo to ensure all the solid waste currently chocking the stadium is removed immediately.

It now remains to be seen whether the minister’s directive will be honoured given the local authority do not have any official site yet for waste disposal even though all land within the council is held in trust by the municipal council.

Early attempts by the local authority to move the current dumping site to Mamboleo where land had been identified hit a snag after residents of the estate vehemently opposed the idea citing health risks.

Speaking at Kisumu’s Kenyatta sports grounds during the official lauching of a ten year solid waste management strategy for the municipality, the minister described the dumping site as an eye- sore which must be removed at all costs.

”The place stinks and poses a serious health risk to the residents of the neighbouring estates and even to players whenever sporting activities hosted at the venue are on” said Musalia.

The minister said the lake side city had a huge potential to be an economic hub of the east African region and challenged the city fathers to ensure it was made clean and safe to attract investors.

He said Kisumu with a population of over half a million people must now improve its infrastructure and ensure roads, provision of clean ,safe drinking water and sewerage systems were efficiently working if it expects to attract more investors.

He also observed that the post election violence in early 2008 following Kenya’s bungled presidential elections negatively impacted on the economy of the city and urged the locals to work towards creating conducive environment that will spur economic growth.

” No investor can put their money where things are in a state of disrepair. You are very vibrant and energetic but we want you to put that vibrancy and energy to activities that will bring money to this city and create jobs for the many jobless youths here” he added.

Mudavadi said close to 400 metric tonnes of solid waste is generated per day in Kisumu with Nairobi contributing 3000 tonnes of the same.

He said the problem of solid waste management was still a major challenge in most towns within the country with Nairobi being the worst hit.

”In Dandora, the case is worse with thuggery being the hall mark and we do not want this scenario to spill over to other towns in the country.”he said

He disclosed that the Kenya government through its local authorities was partnering with other development agencies including AFD through the French government to implement projects that will see solid waste management within key towns in the country improve tremendously and sustainably.

Some of the areas that will benefit from the program includes Mombasa which has already received Ksh 1b and Nakuru Shs 700m from the French Development Agency-AFD.

In the year 2002,UN-HABITAT with support from SIDA began implementing the Lake Victoria City Development Strategies [CDS] initiative for improved Urban Environment and Poverty Reduction which was aimed at mobilizing city authorities along Lake Victoria region and other stakeholders to develop a regional framework for laying out cities development strategies.

Kisumu’s vision as put out in the CDS is to become a leading transportation,communication and commercial hub in the Great Lakes Region offering great tourism and agro-investment opportunities.

The strategy highlights development challenges as identified and prioritized by the citizens of Kisumu, harmonized from a broad spectrum of stakeholder views and interests.

These includes poor solid waste collection and treatment inefficiencies, discharge of inadequately treated wastewater, blocked drains often associated with flash floods,and direct pollution of water bodies through informal practices such as car washing among others.

Today, most of the solid waste in Kisumu remains uncollected with a collection efficiency estimated at 20 per cent of the 300 tons generated daily.This is according to the UN-HABITAT.

The little that is collected is removed from the higher income areas under a scheme shared between the City council and a few private operators. Furthermore,waste transported to the dump site for disposal is not properly managed.

ENDS.