Call to amend Act to provide punitive measures on Waste Management

Executive Director of the Kenya Female Advisory Organization{KEFEADO} Easter Oketch during a media Training on reporting on Waste Management in Kisumu. She urges for the Amendment of the Kisumu Waste Management Act, 2020 to provide punitive measures to offenders on Waste management-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

August 5, 2021

Call to amend Act to provide punitive measures on Waste Management

There is need to make amendment to the Kisumu Waste Management Act of the year 2020 to provide stringent measures to offenders on issues of managing waste within Kisumu County.

Executive Director of the Kenya Female Advisory Organization {KEFEADO} Easter Oketch says part of the Act that provides that an individual pays a fine of not exceeding shs 2,000 and shs 50,000 for entities as penalty is not enough hence needs to be reviewed through amendment.

Speaking during a Complex Urban Systems for Sustainable Health {CUSSH} Media Training workshop in Kisumu, Oketch said the County Assembly of Kisumu needs to consider such a proposal to amend the Act.

Oketch says managing wastes within Kisumu County especially from some entities have been a bigger problem hence such needs to be addressed through serious legislations and regulations.

The KEFEADO executive Director says it is high time the issues of managing waste be handled properly right from the household level within the various areas in Kisumu County.

She adds that just reviewed Kisumu County Integrated Development Plan {CIDP} should have serious provisions on proper management of waste in the County, adding that the next review of the document will be in the next five years.

On the issues of Gender and Waste management, Oketch says there is need to fully include women on the issues of waste management through engaging them in the process of public participation.

She adds that timing is the key factor if they fully needed to take part on issues of managing waste within the community.

Evans Gichana, the Director of Climate Change at the County Government of Kisumu during his presentation on Climate Change and trends in Waste Management with a focus on informal settlement says for the issue of zero waste to be achieved, policies, regulations and legislations should be fully implemented.

He says there should be total behaviour change, attitude towards managing the waste.

“Public engagement to waste management as well as formalize and integration of informal waste pickers are also key in zero waste to be achieved,” Gichana says.