By Tobias Ogutu
There is nothing more painful and out of order than doing something great, but another person takes credit for it. The world has been unfair to some inventors who have made great discoveries but have not received recognition for their work. Although there are a number of ways to protect one’s work, in the government system, some take credit for work they did not put any effort into. This scenario is evident in Kisumu County, where actual waste management individuals do not receive recognition and credit for their hard work. Those who receive recognition and awards do not put in the effort to solve the waste management problems in this city. In the Kisumu waste management industry, there are many devils in the angels’ coats.
Kisumu is recognized as the cleanest city in Kenya, which shows the level of hard work that waste management groups in this region put in. Making a city like Kisumu clean is not an easy task; it requires proper coordination between the private sector, the county government, and the actual waste handlers. Kisumu County has observed this well in the past years, and this is the factor that contributed to it being recognized as the cleanest compared to the rest of the cities and towns in the country. However, recently, the coordination between the county government and actual waste handlers has been poor, which is slowly affecting the tidiness of the city.
Recently, Kisumu has become the center of focus for benchmarking waste management. The county government is bringing new faces into the picture as the people behind the clean state of the city. The actual waste handlers who made Kisumu visible nationwide are being neglected and removed from the picture. The sad thing is that the new faces coming up and taking credit as the brains behind this successful project only have theoretical knowledge of WM. When it comes to practical implementation, their brains switch off.
In a recent interview with Kisumu waste management groups by Ramogi TV, some who turned up in nice attire were not even involved in keeping the city clean. Those who keep Kisumu city clean are not always in suits; they do not wear perfumes- the actual waste handlers are always busy keeping the city tidy. They wake up at 4 a.m. to clean the town before the traffic becomes heavy. Some wait until the market closes to dispose of the waste and clean it so that the next day, the sellers find it tidy again. Yet, with all these sacrifices, someone who does nothing at all takes their credit and recognition.
The truth is that there are waste management groups that only exist on paper and are recognized and helped by the county government to secure grants, yet they do nothing when it comes to waste management. They are only friends with those in power in the county government.
The county government needs to learn how to appreciate the actual waste handlers for the role they play in waste management. Getting their close friends to fill the role of waste handlers whenever there is something good for those who keep the city clean is a form of corruption. A devil in an angel’s coat remains a devil.
