Sakaja: Nairobi to deregister rogue waste firms dumping illegally at night
By Aloys Michael, September 17, 2025Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has said the county government will deregister Private Service Providers’ businesses that are facilitating unlawful waste dumping across the city.
Speaking in an interview on a local Radio station on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, Sakaja said that despite these individuals being paid to collect and dispose of waste appropriately, they have recurrently disposed of waste at unlawful sites.
According to the county boss, the providers hire youth and instruct them to dispose of the waste at prohibited sites at night to avoid detection.
“When you go to some areas, such as Kawangware, we, as the county government, clean up these places, but after a while, these places are dirty again. Some private service providers are being paid to collect waste, and then they are unlawfully dumping waste at night. We are going to deregister them,” Sakaja said.
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Sakaja said that the county government is keen to establish more waste management infrastructure across the county and hire more people, especially the youths, who will be tasked with ensuring that streets are clean.
“The last time the Nairobi county government hired people to clean the streets was in 1987, and you find that those who were hired are already old and want to retire. We also had a problem with equipment because you must have lorries and buckles and other facilities, and we have a plan to rectify this,” he explained.
Why city is dirty?
Sakaja has revealed why many of the city’s streets remain littered, pointing to massive debts and operational challenges as major hurdles.
“Before my administration, NMS had multiple service contracts that created the illusion of cleanliness, but in reality, they left us with a debt of Ksh16 billion,” Sakaja explained.
“Contractors were being paid Ksh1.6 billion monthly, yet the national government only remitted Ksh1.7 billion. With that balance, how could we possibly deliver other essential services?”
He further noted that delayed funds from the national government exacerbate the issue. “Even when garbage is collected by our teams, without funds to fuel the trucks, it cannot be transported. Prioritising salaries means waste often sits by the roadside,” the Governor said.