President William Ruto has indicated that at least 10,000 youth work in the clean-up efforts of the Nairobi River.

In a statement on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, Ruto observed that the exercise was well on course and added that close to 80 per cent of the cleaning efforts in the river had been done.

“The regeneration of the Nairobi Rivers Basin is progressing well. With nearly 10,000 young people working in the programme every fortnight, garbage has been cleared in 75km of the 94km stretch of the Nairobi, Ngong and Mathare rivers,” Ruto said.

Adding: “To conserve the rivers’ basin, 272,000 seedlings have been planted and 268 tree nurseries established.”

Since its launch on October 1, 2024, Ruto noted that 69km of the Nairobi River basin had been unclogged, and another 56km had been levelled.

Climate Worx

Youth engaged in the Climate Worx programme work for two weeks at any given month. The payments are disbursed to the workers’ mobile money numbers every two weeks before they rest for the next two weeks.

During the cleaning exercise and the affiliated duties including the planting of trees and planting of tree nurseries, the workers are entitled to a daily earning of Ksh500 while their supervisors earn Ksh550.

Some of the activities in the programme include rehabilitation of the Nairobi River, tree-planting and nursery development, solid waste management and road construction and maintenance.

During the launch of the programme, Ruto said Nairobi County is set to account for 20,000 of the programme’s total projected employment number of 40,000.

Previous efforts

The government has launched several rehabilitation efforts on the Nairobi River basin but a sustainable exercise has been elusive.

The Nairobi River Basin Programme was formed in 2006, the Nairobi Solid Waste Management Programme was launched in 2007 and in 2018, former President Uhuru Kenyatta formed the Nairobi Regeneration Committee to address the continued pollution of the river and address waste disposal challenges.

In 2022, Ruto formed the Nairobi Rivers Commission to be chaired by former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu. The commission is now headed by former Starehe MP Margarete Wanjiru.