COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL IN NAIROBI 63
LAs provide solid waste collection services under the Local Government Act (CAP
265) and Public Health Act (CAP 242). The former empowers LAs to establish and
maintain solid waste collection services while the latter requires the LAs to provide
the services. The Acts, however, neither set standards for solid waste collection nor
refer to waste reduction or recycling. In addition, the Acts do not classify waste into
municipal, industrial and hazardous types or allocate responsibility over each type.
The NCC has enacted by-laws, under the Local Government Act, prohibiting illegal
deposition of waste, specifying storage and collection responsibilities for waste gener-
ators, and indicating the Council’s right to collect solid waste collection charges.
These are not adequately implemented, however. Kenya therefore lacks any compre-
hensive national solid waste management legislation.
LAs are established as autonomous and independent corporate entities but are emas-
culated by the Central Government. The example of the NCC best illustrates how LAs
operate in Kenya. The NCC is headed by a Mayor, assisted by a deputy Mayor, and
comprises of 73 councillors (55 of whom are popularly elected and the rest nominated
by the MOLG). The Council manages its affairs through 12 committees (composed of
councillors), which vote by consensus. The mayor and councillors have no executive
powers Policies made by the committees are therefore implemented by chief officers
(headed by the City Clerk), who are accountable to MOLG. These officers are
recruited by the Public Service Commission (PSC)^2. The LAs cannot relieve such staff
of their duties or discipline them without PSC approval. This reduces the responsi-
bility and accountability of the staff to the LAs (Gatheru and Shaw, 1998). This struc-
ture has wrought enormous friction between the councillors and the chief officers
The Local Government Act empowers the Minister for Local Government to unilater-
ally establish, abolish, and control LAs (Gatheru and Shaw, 1998). It also allows the
minister to remove all councillors, dissolve the council and appoint a commission to
run the LA. In exercise of this power, many commissions have been appointed in the
history of the NCC, usually in response to political controversies, and often to its detri-
ment. Even though councillors are responsible for policy, ministerial approval is
required even for minor decisions. It is not uncommon, moreover, for the NCC to
make a decision, only for the Provincial Administration to violate it. While the
ministry has exercised excessive control over LAs in some aspects, it has largely failed
to play its key oversight role (NCC, 2000). Thus it failed to intervene, and some of its
senior staff actually participated, in the plundering of NCC resources.
Since the country adopted a multiparty political system in 1992, political parties
compete for the right to form the government, including local government. Like
parliament, therefore, LAs tend to have councillors from the ruling and opposition
parties. The mayor, being elected by other councillors, usually belongs to the political
- LAs require ministerial approval to hire even low cadre staff.