Malindi high court judge justice Stephen Gidhinji together with Jambojet Managing director Karanja Ndegwa joined stakeholders in one of the cleaning areas along Covo beach to Malindi marine park together with other groups.
Since the Covid 19 Pandemic began the stakeholders under the Progress Welfare Association (PWAM) came up with the Nyumba 10 initiative where over 40 different stakeholders from hotels, beach operators, police, prisons, among others cleaned their areas.
Mr Githinji who was along Coco beach area told journalists that the noble idea of monthly clean-up was a good initiative to keep the resort town clean to attract tourists.
The stakeholders said in Malindi that the beach was littered by plastics being dumped by Miraa and Mugukaa users which was a threat to the environment.
The Judge said most of the waste he managed to collect included those from PK and other chewing gums which clearly indicates people were chewing khat and dumping the plastics all over.
"Today I joined the community in Kilifi Malindi for a cleanup exercise, It a Nyumba 10 organization which I thought is a good idea of keeping our environment clean, my experience today is that we are not responsible and we have to make our people responsible in taking care of our waste," he said.
he said people are very careless with their wastes as they threw them anyhow after consuming the products which were wrong.
He appealed to all residents of Malindi to join the Nyumba 10 initiative of clean-ups so as to make the environment clean in the town, beach, estates, and trading centers.
"Those consuming miraa are the greatest culprits if we can be able to manage our wastes I think we can keep our environment better," he said.
The Judge also advised the companies making chewing gums to use biofriendly wrappers instead of plastics.
He said the business people owning properties like hotels in front of the beaches can also make sure their areas are clean.
The Jambo Jet CEO on his part said as an airline company that flies over 60,000 passengers in Malindi they felt it better to give back to the community by supporting clean-up as one way of promoting a clean environment.
He said it was impressive that they managed to collect 169 kilograms of waste along the beach.
"Ours is to ask the people who are walking along the beach just to keep it clean because it attracts visitors, visitors don't want to come in here and see wastes dumped all over," he said.
Mr Ndegwa said they will continue to strengthen and support the organizers of the clean-up so that they do not feel they are walking alone,’ he said.
Katana Kahindi a tour guide at the Silver sand area said they were happy to be part of the cleanup exercise as it was a clear indication that the sector was going to come back to normal and more tourists will come.
He said if the beach is clean it normally attracts tourists who in turn give them job opportunities and ask friends to visit the resort town.
The tour guide said those chewing miraa at the beach are known but called on the authorities or those making chewing gums to install waste bins so that people can drop all the waste.
"If we get dust bins we will take it upon ourselves to ensure that those visiting the beach do not dump wastes anywhere, the ones chewing miraa will also have to dump the wastes at the dust bins or else we deal with them because we do not want to be in a dirty environment," he said.
Joseph Wairimu from Mathatre youth film festival said they joined the beach clean-up exercise and shall also be planting mangroves in Sabaki.
He said they learned lessons from the exercise and will take it home to ensure rivers and lakes are clean as poor waste management contributes to environmental disasters.
Currently, he said they were doing a documentary in Malindi that focuses on climate change and climate action and justice.
The Malindi clean-up excessive began over two years ago and has been successful as organizations team up under PWAM to ensure each month people come out to clean.
Previously the people used to come together to participate but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they came up with the nyumba 10 initiative which has made it more bigger as the exercise covers a wider area.
*This article was written by Ramadhan Kambi for Uzalendo News. Email: uzalendonews24@gmail.com to submit your story.
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