![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8f7011ec-7c22-4740-8e0a-7eb1cb43b042.png\")
Mombasa environment and solid waste management chief officer Hamid Shehan\/BRIAN OTIENO<\/p>\nMombasa environment and solid waste management chief officer Hamid Shehan\/BRIAN OTIENO<\/p>\n
From an early age, Hamid Shehan has been pushed
\nto the limits by his father, who just wanted the best for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut
\nI did not realise that at first when I was young. I always thought he was
\npunishing me. I even questioned whether he was my real father and that I was
\nadopted,\u201d Shehan says.<\/p>\n
Because
\nof his huge size, almost being obese, which ran in the family and caused health
\nproblems, he was forced into different sports, including swimming, taekwondo,
\nrugby, basketball, and tennis, among others.<\/p>\n
He
\nloved swimming the most.<\/p>\n
And
\nto instill discipline and a positive work ethic, Shehan and his siblings were
\nnot supposed to be found in bed past 7 am, whether it was a\u00a0Monday\u00a0or a\u00a0Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe
\nused to be woken up at 7 am, even when there was nothing to do. We just had to wake up.
\nThere was no sleeping past 7 am. It was a crime,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
This
\npush by the father helped him become a good swimmer, representing Kenya in the
\nAll Africa Junior Championships in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
\n1997, as he waited to join Form 1.<\/p>\n
He
\nstarted swimming while in Class 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy
\ndad was afraid I was becoming obese and there was a history of high blood
\npressure, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic conditions in my family and
\nhe didn\u2019t want me to join the long queue,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwimming
\ntaught me how to live with different people from different cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n
This
\nexperience also enhanced his competitive nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy
\ncompetitiveness is unique because I do not compete with others. That will only
\nlimit me to the limits of my competitors. I compete with myself, so I can be
\nbetter than I was\u00a0yesterday,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nsuffered two job losses and at some point stayed for almost six months without
\na job, making him feel he was becoming a burden to his family.<\/p>\n
Shehan, however, learned from an early age the spirit of being a fighter and this is
\nwhat he has been using to get by in life.<\/p>\n
The
\nchief officer in Mombasa County\u2019s Department of Environment and Solid Waste Management was born and raised in the Old Town, where culture and tradition persist among the coastal communities of Bajuni and Swahili Arabs.<\/p>\n
He
\nwent to Aga Khan primary and secondary schools, completing his Form 4 in
\n2001, before taking a diploma in IT from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, a course which
\nwas being offered at Jeffery Institute of Professional Studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt
\nthat time, however, everyone was doing an IT degree and I felt the field would
\nbe saturated. I wanted something that would make me unique and stand out.
\nSomeone advised me to do an accounting course called ACCA (Association of
\nChartered Certified Accountants) at Memon College.\u201d<\/p>\n
His
\nfather was an electrician, while most of his uncles were accountants.<\/p>\n
But
\nbeing a teenager, he did not take the course seriously and failed in each of
\nhis first papers, angering his father who thought he was playing with his
\nmoney.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo
\n\u2018punish\u2019 me, he said he would not pay for my fees anymore and that I would have
\nto pay for my own fees from the small jobs I used to get as a computer
\ntechnician,\u201d Shehan says.<\/p>\n
Shehan says it was his first time he realised the
\nvalue of money and how hard it is to earn it.<\/p>\n
He
\ngot a job as an accountant at Indiana Beach Apartments, juggling work
\nand college.<\/p>\n
In
\n2006, after graduating from Memon College, he secured a job in Zanzibar as an
\naccountant at a water company called Drop of Zanzibar, where pay was much more
\nthan the one at Indiana Beach Apartment.<\/p>\n
However,
\nafter about 18 months of work, an opportunity to work at Somak Luxury Travel
\nback home arose and he grabbed it.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately,
\nthis was during the post-election violence time and shortly after he lost his
\njob because the violence negatively affected the tourism industry. He was forced out due to a lack of business in the sector.<\/p>\n
He
\ntarmacked again before being linked with an auditing job at Devani-Devani,
\nearning less than half what he was earning at Somak.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis
\nis the first job that gave me discipline and meticulousness. I learnt to be
\nvery meticulous about papers and contracts. My boss Paraag Devani was impressed
\nabout my work and he is the one who taught me to be meticulous and
\ndisciplined,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Shehan worked there for four years before eventually
\nsecuring another job as a chief finance officer at an electrical and air
\nconditioning company in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut
\nthen Covid came and I was laid off. This was the second time I was being laid
\noff because of outside circumstances,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nstayed jobless for three years before an opportunity at the Mombasa county
\ngovernment arose, and he was pushed to apply for it by his friends who were fed
\nup of his whining about poor service delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI
\nwas one of the fiercest critics of the county government and I was constantly
\npointing out failures. So those around me saw the call for applications in the
\ncounty and asked me to apply so they could see what I would do if I were on the
\nother end.\u201d<\/p>\n
He
\nsays he also applied for the opportunity to prove people wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere
\nwas this notion that coastal youth are lazy and cannot work. It was so annoying to me. I
\nhad gone to Zanzibar to work and people still thought we were lazy,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
He
\ngot lucky and secured a job in the county where he was first posted as the chief
\nofficer in the department of agriculture, livestock, and blue economy.<\/p>\n
This
\nwas the first job in the public sector he got, and there was a huge culture
\nshock.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut
\nI had learned from my father, who died in 2018, that I should do anything to the
\nbest of my ability. Never do anything halfheartedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI
\nstarted doing online courses on the blue economy to grasp anything and
\neverything about it. I was green in the area,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A
\nyear later, there was a reshuffle, and he was transferred to the environment and
\nsolid waste management department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis
\nis where the discipline I had learned before came in handy. My mentor, Deputy Governor
\nFrancis Thoya, who is a hard worker, also helps me a lot in this department,\u201d
\nShehan says.<\/p>\n
His
\ncompetitive nature has seen him push himself and fellow workers to heights
\nnever seen before in Mombasa.<\/p>\n
Through
\nhim, Mombasa has been ranked the 18th\u00a0cleanest city in Africa
\nby Africa Report, a position never achieved before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt
\nmakes me happy and sad. Happy that we\u2019ve been recognised, sad that we\u2019re are\u00a0 not top 10
\nor top 5?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nsays there is still a long way to go to reach excellence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe
\nroad to perfection is not travelled in a single night. We hope that the next
\nreport comes after we have cracked the top 10,\u201d he Shehan
\nadds.<\/p>\n
He
\nsays as a son of Mombasa, he does not expect other people to make Mombasa
\ngreat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe
\nsaying \u2018Charity begins at home\u2019 has deep meaning. If I don\u2019t start it myself, I
\ncannot expect others to start it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He
\nsays his team is strong and constantly surprises him with how dedicated they
\nare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI
\nused to sketch during my free time. I love physical fitness and recently took up
\nboxing as a sport. I am now trying to get back to regular workouts because of the
\nnature of my work; sometimes I don\u2019t have time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nis an avid lover of fantasy and Sci-Fi novels and series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI
\nam a die-hard fan of Japanese manga series, both the animated and cartoon versions. Cartoons take away the daily stress,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nloves long drives, and when alone in the car, he is a daredevil, testing the
\nspeed limits of the cars he drives.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut
\nwhen I have people in the car, I am very disciplined and careful of how I
\ndrive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He
\nstill enjoys open sea swimming, having competed in the open sea swimming gala
\neight times, winning seven times in first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI
\ncredit my father for all this because he is the person I emulate. He didn\u2019t
\ntell me how to live; he showed me how to live. I hope one day I make him
\nproud,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mombasa environment and solid waste management chief officer Hamid Shehan\/BRIAN OTIENO From an early age, Hamid Shehan has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[12586,12584,12588,80,12587,12585,98,100,101,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-20147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-aga-khan","9":"tag-hamid","10":"tag-jkuat","11":"tag-kenya","12":"tag-memon-college","13":"tag-shehan","14":"tag-star-news","15":"tag-star-news-kenya","16":"tag-the-star","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}