Soweto East in Nyayo Highrise Ward smelled of river-mud and ambition — the kind of morning where international visitors step carefully on paths locals navigate blind. ETCO hosted a joint awareness and cleanup with partners who brought expertise and left with stories: Power Engineers’ Don Stuartuvent, Erik Nquist, and Gino; Ecologists Without Borders’ Cleve Stuart; Nairobi Rivers Commission’s Rebecca Bor; Kounkey Designs Initiative’s Ibrahim and team; PAKPRO’s Melissa Kasaba; Nairobi County’s Assistant County Commissioner Rodrick Cheruiyot, District County Commissioner Eliud Waweru Ngung’u, area chiefs Isaac and Kennedy; and the office of MCA representative Moses Oyoo — alongside Zone 2 stakeholders and residents who did the heaviest lifting.
Speakers did not sugar-coat. Solid waste badly managed in Kibera does not stay in Kibera — it slips toward loss of life and property downstream. Between words, people picked plastic, pulled debris, and proved that “Let The Rivers Flow” is labour, not a slogan.
What the day moved
Eighty-seven participants joined the cleanup; two hundred and ten community members received sensitisation. One hundred and fifty metres of riverbank were cleared; 3.2 tonnes of wet waste came out — weight you can feel in your shoulders when bags tear and volunteers improvise.
We are proud of the partnerships and hungry for the next honest step: consistent collection, fair support for youth on the line, and plans that listen to people who sleep closest to the water. Partner with Zone 2 — fund a tool, join a Saturday, or tell the truth about waste where you live.
