{"id":4800,"date":"2026-01-05T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/4800\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:40:14","slug":"nairobi-choking-in-litter-linked-to-festive-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/4800\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi choking in litter linked to festive celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wananchi<\/a> By
\n
\n Wananchi Reporter
\n <\/a>
\n Published on: January 05, 2026 12:34 (EAT)
\n \"Nairobi <\/p>\n

A picture taken on January 5, 2026, showing the littered streets of Nairobi CBD. [Photo\/Courtesy]<\/p>\n

\"Vocalize <\/p>\n

Audio By Vocalize<\/p>\n

Nairobi city has been left choking in litter following the festive period, raising questions on the civic responsibility of residents during these important celebrations.<\/p>\n

Residents says that this is \u201cthe way things are\u201d in Nairobi during the festive period.<\/p>\n

The downtown areas of the capital; River Road, Bus Station, Uyoma Street, Ronald Ngala, Ukulima market area, Landhis Road and the nearby Muthurwa market are largely unrecognisable.<\/p>\n

Used polythene wrappers and boxes that once covered sweets, yoghurt, crisps, biscuits and left over food have taken over the streets of Nairobi. There are\u00a0empty plastic bottles at every turn.\u00a0One can tell that it will take a lot of effort and time to restore it to good order.<\/p>\n

\u201cNairobi needs dedicated environmental police, officers dedicated to the task of ensuring that the city is clean all the time. It is sad to see the capital in this terrible state of disorder,\u201d says Nelius Mwajuma, a resident of Kilelelshwa.<\/p>\n

Nelius says that the festivities should not be an excuse to litter our city.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have fun, enjoy the festive period, but let\u2019s do it within the borders of responsibility,\u201d says Nelius who often carries little litter home, whenever she cannot find a dustbin, saying it\u2019s something Kenyans should embrace.<\/p>\n

Felix Okwach who works in Nairobi as a hawker says many people are to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hawkers like myself, other roadside traders, touts, pedestrians and people at home who should take responsibility to keep the city clean. Our children are littering because that is what they see adults do,\u201d says Okwach \u2013 adding that litter and garbage management should be a combined effort.<\/p>\n

Sections of Nairobi\u2019s Central Business District (CBD) have undergone facelift \u2013 with most of the pavements and walkways carpeted and lighted. These include Moi Avenue, Ronald Ngala, City Hall Way, Haile Selassie Avenue and Tom Mboya Street among others. However, this will amount to nothing if littering continues.<\/p>\n

Residents want littering and garbage tackled, ruthlessly; those found littering should be fined and where possible, to do some community work involving cleaning the environment.<\/p>\n

Nairobi has a population of five million people or thereabout, and generates over 3,000 tonnes of waste daily. It worsens during festivities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Wananchi Reporter Published on: January 05, 2026 12:34 (EAT) A picture taken on January 5, 2026, showing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3763,3764,3767,80,3766,3765],"class_list":{"0":"post-4800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-cbd","9":"tag-garbage","10":"tag-kanjos","11":"tag-kenya","12":"tag-litter","13":"tag-nairobi-county"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800","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=4800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}