The  National Assembly Committee on Environment, Forestry and Mining held a budget implementation oversight meeting with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

During the meeting chaired by Hon. Getrude Mbeyu (Kilifi) NEMA Director General, Mr. Omamo Omamo asked the Committee to help the Authority get more budgetary allocation saying that lack of adequate funding to recruit staff has hindered its efficiency in upholding the plastic ban that has been in place since 2017.

Mr. Omamo admitted that plastic bags are back in the market, stating that this  is caused by lack of Environment Enforcement Officers at the porous border points to ensure that the banned plastic bags do not cross to the Kenya markets from the neighboring countries like Uganda.

“NEMA has 423 staff against the optimum number of 1,500, it is therefore operating at 30 per cent efficiency level. Essentially, we have no Environment Officers at the porous border posts to prevent the movement of banned plastic bags into the country,” he said.

The DG further told the Committee that they did not have any enforcement officers at the sub-county level despite environmental issues such as control of noise pollution being the function of the devolved government. 

Members advised NEMA to improve  public awareness by going down to the community level for effectiveness.