Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Nairobi residents should brace for stench streets as the strike by city cleaners began to take its toll on sanitation on the capital.

The harrowing reality came even as the county’s Finance and Environment departments hurled blame at each other  over who is responsible for the mess.

Yesterday, residents woke up to  heaps of uncollected garbage after the cleaners downed their tools owing to a delay of their salaries for three months now.

The cleaners downed their brooms, overalls and masks and started walking on city streets as they chanted “enough is enough” while emptying the litter bins to spill waste in all open spaces.

Workers, mainly from Aende Group Limited (AGL), said they would not report to duty until their salaries are paid. 

They vowed not to listen to what they termed as empty promises before being paid.

Through their spokesman, Moses Owino, the workers said they had visited relevant offices in serach of  a solution but to no avail.

 “Since November last year, we have not received any salary. Most of us have had our  houses locked  and our children sent home for lack of school fees but nobody seems to care.

We are appealing to our Senator Johnstone  Sakaja to kindly intervene and help us,” said Owino.

He said the county owes the 200 cleaners about Sh3 million as each of them is supposed to earn Sh15, 000 a month.

 A spot-check  by the  People Daily revealed that most streets remained littered especially the busy ones such as Moi Avenue, Tom  Mboya, Kenyatta Avenue, Mama Ngina and Ronald Ngala.

“It is unfortunate that a capital city like Nairobi can be under this mess. If they don’t act we will see visitors opting to go to other cities yet this is something that can be sorted out  with immediate effect,” sad John Kariuki, a city resident.

Tender award

Last year, Nairobi County Government was  under fire for awarding a Sh278 million garbage collection tender to AGL after it emerged that it had no experience in garbage collection.

Speaking to the  People Daily by  telephone Environment Executive Larry Wambua said the county government  was expediting all means to have the workers paid.

At the same time, Wambua said he had y  had deployed most of the staff from his department to help in the clean-up exercise.

Wambua distanced his docket from the mess and instead  blamed  the finance department.

“We don’t have enough staff but we are doing everything we can to make the city clean. The Finance department should address the issue promptly,” he said.

But when reached for comment, Economic Planning Chief Officer Washington Makodingo blamed the Environment department which he accused  of  failing to forward the list of contractors to be paid in a timely manner.

“The Environment department should not blame us for their incompetence because they know they have slept on the job,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of the Environment department to forward the list of contractors to be paid to the Finance Department.

They are supposed to give us their priority in terms of payment. They should not blame their incompetence on us,” he added.

Regarding confusion at the Finance department, the Chief Officer said nothing could be further from the truth.

He maintained the department is intact and there is smooth flow of work. “There is no confusion and nothing has stalled,” said  Makodingo.