Court suspends Nairobi waste management deal, orders clearance of Umoja garbage

The Environment Court has ordered Nairobi County to clear all trash dumped at the Umoja residential area and control illegal dumping within 135 days.

This comes as the Commercial Court Judge Moses Ado separately barred the county from awarding a 25-year design, construction, operation, maintenance and transfer of an integrated solid waste management system tender to Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

In the Umoja case, Justice Anne Omollo said that Umoja residents led by Namenya Obuli, Nyongesa Namude and Odhiambo Akude had proved that the county has systematically failed in ensuring that the city’s waste was collected and disposed of without polluting the environment or residential areas.

She said that the only solution to this was to give orders that would be supervised by the court.

“Having further found that the continued existence of an illegal and uncontrolled dumpsite within a residential estate constitutes a systemic failure of environmental governance, this court considers that the appropriate remedy must go beyond the reliefs sought.

"The nature of the violation disclosed in this case warrants supervisory relief to ensure future compliance with constitutional and statutory obligations relating to waste management. A structural interdict is therefore warranted to secure sustained remedial action and institutional accountability,” said Justice Omollo.

She asserted that the work of preventing illegal waste disposal lies with the county administration under Governor Johnson Sakaja. According to her, the role of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is supervisory and coordinating.

However, she asserted that it must be active in providing technical guidance, policy support, and coordination to county governments in addressing persistent and systemic waste management challenges.

"In the circumstances of this case, the evidence demonstrates that an illegal and uncontrolled dumpsite has been allowed to subsist and expand within a residential estate over a sustained period of time, obstructing a public road, exposing residents to health and safety risks, and degrading their living environment. The County Government’s gradual clean-up efforts, while commendable, do not displace the fact that the situation had been permitted to exist and reach such proportions in the first place,” she said.

In this case, the trio complained that areas, especially Umoja 1 to Umoja 2 market, had become uninhabitable as they have to deal with flies attracted to the decomposing waste and that the garbage has completely blocked several roads in the area.

According to them, the smell is so bad that pedestrians have to pinch their noses because they have to navigate through filthy roads and sewer water leaking from the trash.

In response, the county claimed it had done its best by removing more than 9000 tons of waste from the area, claiming that it had only one designated dumpsite.

It shifted the blame to individuals living in the same area, claiming that the responsibility for a clean city starts with the residents.

In the meantime, Justice Ado barred the county from awarding the lucrative tender in a case filed by Jeremy Kinyua.

His lawyer, Henry Kurauka, argued that the multibillion-dollar deal was issued vaguely, as there was no competitive bidding.

Kuraura said that the tender, which includes the collection of trash, would ultimately eliminate all players in the sector.

He said that all those employed in 17 wards, either directly or indirectly, were being sidelined despite being critical to the system and being awarded tenders up to 2027.

"The impugned tender in favour of the interested party was not available and did not accrue because the successful local tenderer and service providers are rendering similar services in 17 zones (sub-counties) in Nairobi City County pursuant to various tenders that they won until 2027 and beyond, depending on contracts thereof,” argued Kurauka.