Two contentious proclamations emerged from the Nairobi County government in recent weeks.

They related to one of the city’s most enduring headaches – how to tackle pollution of all kinds. One was about the deafening noise from matatu music systems, and the other was about spitting in public.

According to media reports, people found spitting in public places in the city centre would be arrested and prosecuted under existing bylaws.

But why these warnings now? They were part of auxiliary remarks made as city officials reportedly began installing new trash receptacles in the city centre to replace stolen ones.  

Outsiders, parenthetically, may find it mind-boggling that grown men sneak into a supposedly functioning city under the cover of darkness and manage to steal bulky metal rubbish bins that they then sell to willing scrap metal dealers.  

Officials are apparently desperate, justifiably claiming that this kind of vandalism hampers their efforts to maintain sanitation and order to the standards expected by taxpayers.

And they have reached out to the public for help.

“These dustbins belong to the people of Nairobi, and it is our collective responsibility to protect them from vandalism, particularly by individuals who steal and sell public property to scrap metal dealers,” People Daily quoted Environment Chief Officer Geoffrey Mosiria saying.

Illustrating the depth of the desperation, Mosiria said that “officers would be deployed to guard the dustbins day and night”, but I’m not sure whether he was quoted correctly and truly believes this kind of enforcement is practical.

Sounding as if he was talking to children, Mosiria said spitting on the ground in public spaces, rather than using tissue or a handkerchief, “is both unhygienic and unacceptable in a modern, clean city”.

In an undereducated society like ours, maybe it’s necessary sometimes to make such paternalistic public statements.

Several news outlets, including this one, reported on the city’s spitting warnings without context, as though they had arisen from a newly adopted ordinance.

But such a law has existed for a few years – the 2021 Nairobi City County Public Nuisance Act, an elaborate 19-page document that prohibits, among other offences, spitting on footbaths and blowing one’s nose in public places without using a suitable cloth or tissue; and defecating or urinating on a street or in open spaces.

These and other offences are common occurrences in Nairobi on any given day, with offenders apparently facing no consequences.   

Whereas Nairobi appears to be among the more progressive African cities in having explicit anti-spitting laws with significant penalties (a Ksh10,000 fine or a six-month prison term) and trying to enforce them, such prohibitions are common worldwide, especially in advanced countries.

New York City, for example, still has anti-spitting laws that have origins in the late 1890s (part of efforts to combat tuberculosis, a major health threat at the time).  

While spitting in public is taboo in Western and other better-educated societies, it’s still common in many parts of the world, including Kenya, where structured education about the environment is non-existent. For us, whether it is noise pollution or public spitting, it might be better to start with public education campaigns about the health risks.

That might have a far greater impact than just wielding a stick.

The writer is a Sub-Editor with People Daily