KENYA: Piles Of Garbage In Mombasa Become Tourist Attractions

Tourism city of Mombasa is stepping up efforts to get rid of heaps of garbage with planned employment of 65 cleaners.
The county government said in an advert it is looking to employ cleaners to supplement efforts by the department of environment to deal with the menace.

Governor Hassan Joho has been on the spot for failing to deal with the piling garbage in the county.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, have also criticised the governor for failing to get rid of the waste.

Over time, uncollected garbage has littered almost every space, including road reserves as well as residential and public areas in Mombasa.

The County Service Board has advertised vacancies for five cleansing supervisors and 60 general cleaners on a three-month non-renewable contract.

Garbage has been our main challenge. High season is setting in and we need to have our town clean, county communication director Richard Chacha said.

We have been criticised by many people mainly because of garbage. We want to address it once and for all and there are many other efforts we are taking to deal with it, he said.

The garbage menace was massively used as a campaign tool by Mr Joho’s rivals, Hassan Sarai, Hezron Awiti and Suleiman Shahbal who accused the governor of failing to clean the tourist city.

In June, the Mombasa County Assembly passed a Bill on waste management. The Bill came on the heels of an outcry from hoteliers, the business community and residents over the mounting waste.

Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Coast branch executive officer Sam Ikwaye termed the uncollected garbage an eyesore to locals and tourists.

He said tourists travelling by road from Moi International Airport to they city centre have to endure an intolerable stench from the Kibarani dumpsite.

Mr Chacha warned residents against littering. Anyone found littering faces an instant fine of Sh5,000 for failing to pay garbage collectors or dumping waste at non-designated places, states a proposed by-law.

The county has spent Sh2.3 million on building garbage collection points after phasing out the previous waste management system.

Hoteliers have asked the Mombasa and Kilifi county governments to collect rotting garbage and keep the resort towns clean ahead of the tourism high season.

Sam Ikwaye, the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Coast branch executive said Mombasa, which is the country’s tourism hub, is filthy due to piles of uncollected garbage.

Mounds of garbage dumped on road reserves and public areas are emitting overpowering stench, making life miserable for locals and visitors, he said.

The KAHC official said the refuse in the town is an eyesore to both locals and international tourists visiting Mombasa for holidays.
In every corner of the town you travel, you are hit by sickening smell of rotting garbage or sewage emptied into storm-water drainage system, he said.

Mr Ikwaye said tourists travelling by road from the Moi International Airport have to endure an intolerable stench emanating from the Kibarani dumpsite.

For Mombasa to attract more holidaymakers, the city must be kept clean. The high season is just the corner and it is our wish that the county chiefs address the solid waste challenge, he said.

In Malindi, Ocean Beach Resort Managing Director Roberto Marini said the tourist town was choking with garbage due to non-collection of waste.
The hotelier added that the untidiness of the town is among the challenges crippling tourism in Malindi.

It saddening that a town which depends solely on tourism has been left untidy due to the laxity of the Kilifi county government in getting rid of the filth in the holiday destination,” he said.

Mr Marini called on the county authorities to clean the town for residents and visitors to live in a clean environment.

When reached for comment, Tendai Lewa, Mombasa's county executive in charge of health, said the county was grappling with the challenge of community garbage collectors who recklessly dump garbage in the streets.

He said the community garbage collectors throw waste on road reserves instead of placing it on designated stations where trucks can collect it.
We have more than 700 community garbage collectors who collect garbage from residential and business premises across the town, he said.

Sadly, instead of transporting the garbage to dumpsites, they carelessly pour the waste in the streets thereby making the city unclean, he added.
To address the issue, Mr Lewa said the county’s inspectorate department was cracking down on the collectors messing the town and would face the law.

We arrest between seven and eight irresponsible collectors and take them to court. The sentences meted on them will deter them from reckless throwing of litter in the town, he warned.

Mr Lewa assured Mombasa residents and hoteliers that the county would redouble its efforts to make the town clean.

In Kilifi, environment executive Mwachitu Kiringi said the county was addressing the matter.

Last week, we faced a garbage collection crisis in Malindi town after the contractor withdrew his services due to a payment delay, he said.
In order to rid the town of filth, Mr Kiringi said the county had hired a truck to collect the garbage that had piled up on road reserves.
He added that the county had repaired its trucks that were now working to keep the seaside resort town clean.

The county government has added six more garbage collection trucks as part of efforts to rid the city of filth.
The move came after hoteliers expressed concern over the piling up of garbage in the city at a time when the high tourist season begins next month.

Communications director Richard Chacha said the county had hired six more trucks to supplement the cleaning department in the collection of garbage across the city.

Apart from the trucks which collect garbage daily in the town, each of the six constituencies will receive one more truck each to assist in the collection of waste, he said.

Mr Chacha assured Mombasa residents, hoteliers and the business community that the county would keep the town clean.
However, he called on town dwellers and community collectors to place the garbage at designated areas for collection and disposal at the Mwakirunge dumpsite.

Mr Chacha warned against littering the city.

It is an irresponsible behaviour for town dwellers to dump waste on road reserves and public areas. Those messing up the town will be prosecuted, he said.

While it’s the responsibility of the county to collect garbage, motorists and pedestrians should stop throwing empty bottles and polythene bags in the streets.

Last week, Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers Coast branch executive officer Sam Ikwaye said Mombasa, a tourism hub, was filthy due to piles of uncollected garbage.

He said the mounds of garbage dumped on the road reserves and public areas in the town were an eyesore and was making life miserable for locals and visitors.

In every corner of the town you travel, you are hit by the sickening smell of rotting garbage or sewage emptied into the storm-water drainage system, he said.



Tourism Observer

KENYA: IATA Rates Kenya 10th Out Of 37 Countries For Visa Openness

Kenya is among the top 10 African countries for visa openness, a survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has shown.

The country is ranked 10 out of 37 countries for visa openness and 31st for cost competitiveness in the continent.

The findings are among highlights of The Importance of Air Transport to Kenya, a study by Oxford Economics on behalf of IATA.

IATA Regional Vice President for the Middle East & Africa Muhammad Ali Albakri said Kenya could reap greater dividends from aviation by adopting policies that ensure a competitive operating environment for airlines.

While Kenya’s air transport infrastructure ranks highly among African states, it is important that heavy fees, taxes and charges do not hold aviation back, he said.

About a fortnight ago, Kenya granted South Africans additional time to visit without visas, pointing to a thawing of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Kenya is also set to commence the issuance of four-day transit visas from January which will allow foreign passengers on Kenya Airways awaiting connection flights at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to exit for shopping and sightseeing.

Passengers on layovers, a break between two flights taking passengers to their final destination, will receive a 96-hour transit visa, up from the current 72.

The move is expected to boost KQ’s income and the local travel industry as well as increase the attractiveness of JKIA as a transit port.

The IATA survey showed that an estimated 130,000 aircraft land and take off annually from the JKIA which is the key gateway to the rest of the world.

In 2014, JKIA handled over 5.8 million passengers, the Moi International Airport in Mombasa handled 950,000 passengers while the Wilson Airport handled 310,000 passengers.

The study found that air transport sector’s ability to connect Kenya to emerging countries and fast growing cities can help drive economic growth.

There are 6 direct flight destinations among the ten fastest growing countries in the world as measured by GDP growth and 9 direct flight destinations among the 20 fastest growing countries.

The data shows there are 20 direct weekly flights among the ten fastest growing cities in the world as measured by GDP growth and 41 direct weekly flights among the 100 fastest growing cities.

Albakri said the study confirms the vital role that air transport plays in supporting the country’s economy.

The data showing that the air transport sector in Kenya supports some 620,000 jobs including tourism-related employment, while contributing Sh329.6 billion (US$3.2 billion) or 5.1 per cent of the East African nation’s GDP.

KENYA: Airlines Flocking Mombasa For High Season

Turkish Airlines is expected to resume daily flights between Istanbul and Mombasa from next month.

The airline’s marketing manager Carol Mukinya said the carrier would increase flights from the current five per week to daily programmes.

She attributed the flights increase to the peak season which begins next month, adding that passenger numbers were rising owing to the summer season.

Between May and this month, we have been operating five flights a week due to the low season which is coming to an end on June 30, she said.

Ms Mukinya noted that the Turkish national carrier is expected to operate daily flights from July to March next year when the high season ends.

Through our daily flights from the Istanbul hub in July, we expect to fly more tourists to Mombasa for them to enjoy holiday,she said.

The flight increase would boost tourism and the airline would connect Mombasa with other 300 routes the carrier operates on across the world.

Tourists prefer to come to Mombasa for holiday during summer time due to its alluring beaches and its rich historical culture, she explained.

Turkish Airlines is the only one from Europe operating scheduled flights to Mombasa. Regional airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir also operate scheduled flights to Mombasa.

During the low season, majority of the European chartered airlines stop flying to Mombasa owing to low numbers.

On Sunday Lufthansa announced that it would increase flights between Frankfurt and Nairobi to six per week from June 21.
Lufthansa which is the largest airline in Europe in terms of fleet size, plans to increase operations on the Frankfurt-Nairobi route from five flights a week to six.

On the other hand, Swiss International Airlines is expected to increase flights between Zurich and Nairobi from five per week to six beginning July 6.

Hotels which were shut down for the low season in April at the Coast are expected to re-open to welcome guests by the end of this month and July 15.

Lufthansa Group East Africa regional sales general manager Tobias Ernst said: We are excited to further support tourism in Kenya by providing more capacity for visitors.

The Lufthansa service will be available throughout the week except Mondays using an Airbus A340-300 in a three-class configuration offering customers Business Class, a Premium Economy Cabin and Economy.

Lufthansa says will maintain the late-night departure from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to arrive in Frankfurt early morning.

Kenya has stepped up efforts to return to peak performance of the tourism sector, where signs of growth have started showing with an improved performance in 2016, earning Sh99 billion.