Little Things That Matter

Nairobi may be clean in the CBD and in a few porsche estates but generally it is not anywhere close to being a sustainable city. Litter and waste materials are thrown almost everywhere in public spaces and streets. Efforts are being made on a daily basis to correct this, but the rate at which these efforts are made is way less than the rate at which waste is produced and discarded, making it only practical if we, Nairobians, begin to show concern for the waste we produce. More often than not, I tend to assume that we simply do not care, but maybe, it could be that most of us do not know how to keep our environment clean, and we need to be reminded constantly of what to do.

1. If you are a highly motivated person, you could volunteer your energy and ideas. Your dedication will be inspiring :) !!!

Sometimes back I read an article about The Ugly Indian (TUI), a movement of anonymous but self-motivated individuals who have taken it upon themselves to clean the streets of India without pointing blame fingers. These guys literary transform any ugly and dirty looking public space into something magical. They do not act self-righteous in any way, engage in moralizing conversations, or lay blames on the government for failing their part. They only identify a spot that needs to be fixed, come up with low cost but highly replicable ideas of fixing it, and then fix it.

Maybe we need the same kind of energy in Nairobi because I believe it goes a long way to inspire many people to do the same. We need people who do not hide behind social media making noise, but will be out there on the streets being the change they want to see. This is where you can come in if you are a highly motivated individual. There are numerous organizations where you can pour out that energy. Mazingira Safi Initiative (MSI) is just but an example. These organizations exist so you can meet like-minded individuals and put your energy and ideas to a more effective and impactful use.

Before we can begin to think of these highly motivated individuals who would freely volunteer to clear an illegal dumpsite, like the one in Guthurai Roundabout, without minding the mock of passers-by, there are many of us whose only source of motivation is money. We need to be paid first to show up in a community cleaning exercise or to mobilize people to fix a problem. Don't worry!! There's also a part you can contribute.

2. Be an ambassador where you are.

Unless you tell them constantly, children and also grown ups may not know

Many people are unaware of the unwritten rules. They do not see the problem the way you do. Therefore, be an ambassador. Take this as a commission to provide guidance to those who do not see the magnitude of this problem the way you do. I like what one individual volunteer of MSI once said,

“We need to be bold when you see someone litter. Gather confidence and tell them to pick it up".

This is practically what I mean, but of course you need to be nice and polite, not to stir up any emotions. 

Being an ambassador could also mean making noise on social media and sharing with your networks environmentally resourceful content that they can benefit and learn from. It could further mean educating your kids and small siblings, teaching them to be responsible at home, in school, and in any other public spaces.

3. DO NOT LITTER

Remember this article I wrote sometime back, Think before you toss? Well, I tend to be inclined to the perception that we bring upon ourselves, not entirely, the many problems that we face. Every socioeconomic challenge linked to poor waste and litter management can be blamed on us when we liter. So, try as much as possible to throw away waste in a dustbin. You can hold on to dry solid waste (because it’s dry) until you are able to get rid of it in the right manner. You can also have a paper bag, not necessarily plastic, to keep wet waste such as fruit peels, until you are able to dispose it off in a dustbin. Remember dumping is dumb. Not only is dumping aesthetically unpleasing, it often attracts more dumping as the pile of rubbish grows and then becomes a hazard.

4. Support recycling efforts

There is cash in trash. Ever heard of that saying? Apparently, it is true. There are companies reaping millions from recycling waste. I am not saying you get in the business of waste recycling, but maybe you could be wondering, what is my in role in this? How do I support recycling? Well, you could start thinking along the lines of waste segregation. Those clearly labeled litter bins in town for separating waste, don’t mix up waste in them. Put the right one in the right bin. A lot of the waste we produce, approximately up to 80%, can be transformed into something else for us to use rather than being left a menace to the environment.

5. Lastly, don’t quit, don’t settle!!! 

Humans have a way of starting well but not finishing well. Very few finish well, many give up on the way. I have been to a number of cleanups, and it is demoralizing when after you sweep an entire street, a local resident fails to appreciate your effort and decides to litter right where you have swept. It will therefore take resilience and that is what will take you back to that same street the next time to clean it up, maybe set up dustbins, and teach people what to do and what not to do. 

While Nairobians try to do all these on one hand, the government and other well abled institutions, on the other hand, are hopefully playing their part in putting systems in place that will see a lasting solution, because all these efforts have to be synergistic.

NAIROBI CITY, GIVE GOVERNOR KIDERO A BREAK!!!

Yes, give Dr. Kidero a break! I am an ardent reader of newspapers. I like to know what’s happening. Unfortunately, every two weeks, my sacred reading time has to be rudely interrupted by someone complaining about the state of the Nairobi County. The first thing they always write about is how dirty Nairobi is. That just drives me up the wall and you know why? Kidero doesn’t dirtify Nairobi. You, Nairobi residents, do. Except those who come for the Mazingira Safi Initiative clean-ups.

Nairobi is a sight for sore eyes and do you know what is worse than that, an educated woman or man, throwing a plastic bottle, fruit or God knows what else out of the window of the matatu or worse off, a Range rover. Kenya boasts of educated barons. How many universities do we have per square kilometre again? And yet with all that knowledge, with over 300,000 graduates a year, we still have a dirty Nairobi!

Those who write in to complain about how dirty Nairobi is, what steps have they taken to make it less dirty? What is the probability that he/she has litters? Or that he/she has seen someone dispose something indecently and walked by telling him/her nothing? What is the probability that his/her children, nephews or cousins litter or the probability that when he/she goes for visiting day in school, they leave their spot full of trash? Let me tell you, it is about 97%.

I am tired of reading complaints in the dailies. Anyone can complain, from a 2 year old to a 100 year old. But, who is giving solutions? Let me break it down for you nice and slow. It is NOT KIDERO’S WORK TO KEEP NAIROBI CLEAN AND NEITHER IS IT THE NAIROBI COUNTY COUNCIL! IT IS YOUR WORK!!

There is only so much the government can do. There are bins in the CBD. How many people use them? Do you litter in your house? Even if NCC had 1000 lorries, with this senseless, despicable activity of littering, Nairobi would be dirty anyway. How can the NCC move from one place to another sweeping yet they are not the ones who litter? Why are you giving them responsibility of something you can change? If day in and day out they sweep the CBD, when will they ever get to sweep outside CBD? Why should they even be sweeping in the first place? It’s your trash! Put it in a bin! Therefore, before you think of complaining about how dirty Nairobi is, ask yourself if you are part of the problem or part of the solution. What are you doing to make Nairobi better? What value is your education adding to the country? Are you a complainer or a problem solver?

Littering is the simplest form of environmental degradation. There is no difference between one who is cutting down a tree and you who is littering. It is also a social evil practised by human beings, who are the most knowledgeable of all the creatures in, over and under the planet, earth and the heavens. Clearly, education does not eliminate foolishness.

Therefore, next time you see someone litter, tell them to BIN their trash. If there is no bin around, tell them to carry their trash until they find one even if it is until they get to their house. Don’t litter yourself and teach children to do the same. After writing an article or a Facebook post to complain, end the post with a solution.

Nairobi is not for Dr. Kidero to keep clean. It is for you and me. Stop littering today then like Mazingira Safi Initiative on Facebook and @MsafiInitiative on twitter then, challenge your friend, neighbour and stranger to stop littering. Inspire them to tell the next person and the next. Littering is horrible. After that, sponsor a bin or adopt a highway, contributing resources to Mazingira Safi Initiative to keep streets clean and then become one of our volunteers in our monthly cleanups. After sometime, you should be able to see a change! Share this article as a first step of creating change.

THINK BEFORE YOU TOSS: MAZINGIRA SAFI NI JIRANI MWEMA

 The world is a very small place. It is supposed to bring us close, closer to people and closer to things. It is so small that we ought to be wary of what we say, what we do, and how we interact with even the least thought of things; lest one day we meet when we least expected it, at a place we never thought of, and in a form we could hardly imagine. An encounter that might not be pretty.

Recently, I was sited in class, and in one of those moments where dons just like to digress off topic, my professor asked an obvious question, considering his audience was purely postgraduate students. A question that least makes you to doubt yourself, because you watch TV, read the papers and books, and you attend forums that help you to connect many dots in life; but a question that crosses the mind of very few and even among the few, the question is rarely answered with actions but only left to linger in the cognitive domain.

He asked, “When you buy a candy and decide to toss away the wrapper carelessly, where do you think it goes? Do you ever imagine that the two of you might meet one day but this second encounter might not act in your favor?”

He was obviously hinting at something that is not new, and even as he tried to explain it further, he still left it open and made us to rationalize it on our own, typical professorship. But I tried to be objective and to put myself in the shoes of that candy wrapper or litter for that matter. I decided to write an epitome that embodies the larger reality about litter. I simply decided to bring litter into life, give it a human face, and present it as below.

A lot has been said about me, but the cycle never seems to end.
Stories after stories, nothing ever seems to change.
You leave me in places where I am not supposed to be left.
You drop me on the streets where council workers have just swept.
You toss me out of your car windows, by the road side to stench.
Even after seeing ‘no litter’ sign posts, your ignorance still remains at its best.
I may be disgusting and useless, what do you expect? I am waste.
What good can come out of me? I make a mess.
But just make sure you put in the right place.

I understand candies appeal to your tastes
When you are tired and hungry and all you want is to rejuvenate.
I understand Nairobi does not have enough bins
And you are always too anxious to get rid 
The burden of carry me around
I understand that picnics are fun, when you hold them in public Parks 
You get to share memories that last, for a while, 
But you forget to care for the trash, you leave behind.
I understand most Nairobi streets are dirty
But it’s only fair if you simply do the right thing

You slap Mother Nature right on her face 
when you litter or leave me on the ground.
It’s only a matter of time before she gets
 really mad and unleashes the wrath of an irate woman.
A scene my eyes will honestly hate

But even now, I loathe seeing you and your brood fall ill 
I loathe contaminating aquifers and river streams
I loathe making the air heavy for you to breath
I just loathe when I see you walk on dirty streets
Or see you sleep next to a pile of me

So, if you refuse to understand me
I will be your worst nightmare. Trust me.
If you ignore those litter bins,
Or if you think you are too far from a bin, 
and decide to compromise,
I will be your worst nightmare. Trust me.
Worst all, if you decide to cut down trees
thinking that I have nothing to do with it,
I will join forces to be your ugliest nightmare. Trust me
And that’s where we shall one day meet

But I want to save you a lot of trouble
Put me in the right place and your brood, please disciple
I also think you need to learn how to recycle
It’s a ‘no brainer’, and you are not splitting an atom
You are simply separating waste, something easy to fathom

So much for being in the shoes of a candy wrapper, but if litter was to think like this and everyone understands it, there would be a lot of justice on the streets of Nairobi. Nairobians would operate on a different tier. A tier of kusema na kutenda, for Mazingira Safi ni Jirani Mwema.

Launching the New Mazingira Safi Initiative Website

After months of design, development, optimization, content creation and quality checks, Mazingira Safi Initiative is proud to present our brand new website to the world – www.msi.or.ke

For the past few months, our IT team has been working on putting the new look together, and we hope you like it. The new website features easy to use navigation tabs, a free membership application form, prominent feedback and contact forms, and lots of new content to keep you up to date with the organization. You will also find links to our profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Blog! Follow us to stay up to date on all of the latest news.

Mazingira Safi Initiative, as a nonprofit organization, relies on the power of volunteers and support of well-wishers to ensure the environment around us remains clean, and the website gives you an opportunity to be engaged and be part of us. We are dedicated to making it as easy as possible for you to connect with us and help us inspire people within communities to stop littering.

We will be constantly adding new content and pages to the website, but what you see now is the basic concept that we are very proud of. And as much as we love our final product we have already begun working on the next iteration of our website to improve visitor experience. 

While you visit the site, www.msi.or.ke, please feel free to take a look around and let us know what you think! We're constantly looking for ways to improve and we want to hear from you.

MAZINGIRA SAFI INITIATIVE: ONE YEAR…ONE MONTH… LATER

The last one year has been an amazing journey, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's a rare thing to be able to touch people's lives this way, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every opportunity I get.  

As most of you know, MSI is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization that seeks to inspire communities to own the responsibility of keeping the environment clean through action and community participation in our monthly clean-ups, and education programs.

People often wonder the story behind the start of MSI and they ask why I ever thought of starting such an organization. I remember, in July 6, 2013 at conference, I was having a conversation with an American gentleman I had just met. His name is Kyle. He was interested to know my life story and my passion. I remember telling him that my biggest dream is to see a clean, litter free environment in Nairobi with a proper waste management system.

After all that blabbering, he asked me one question, “Why don’t you do something about it?”

I replied saying I was afraid. He looked at me and what he told me next changed everything. 

He said to me,“You have everything you need to do what God has told you to do.”

I had a passion for the environment. I wanted to be a problem solver and to be an influencer. I was tired of seeing a dirty Nairobi, but on that day, I learnt that my passion had to be greater than my fear.

Later, I began sharing the idea with some of my friends who have, since then, walked with me in this journey. Today, the team has really grown. I got six other passionate and self-driven people on board, rallying alongside me as we pursue this vision. To be great, you must surround yourself with greater people. The organization membership has grown to over 200 people and we have been able to have an average of 30 volunteers in every of our nine previous clean ups. 

The team works very hard to ensure that our activities remain a success. The volunteers are so important to MSI because we don’t just want to make Nairobi, and Kenya, and the world, clean. We want Nairobi, Kenya and the world to be made clean by people who live in it. This is because it is their environment and we want them to own it and love it enough to lavish it with beauty in form of green grass and less litter and good waste management.

Like any other thing, we have our fair share of challenges but we continue to overcome them. In our journey, the NCC has really supported us and most importantly, we are on GOD’s side, the Creator of the environment we are fighting to protect. We look forward to more volunteers, more partnerships and a cleaner environment.

So, the story behind MSI came to be as a result of a dream given by God, and passion for the best environment there can be.

It is driven by the same passion, and passionate people who want to be influencers and problem solvers. It is inspired by you and I and other volunteers here who make a difference by owning this environment and committing to making it clean.

It is not MSI’s work to clean up, it is yours and mine. So we clean today, not litter tomorrow and tell everyone we know to do the same and to join MSI for the next clean up, every day from today.

We will be content not when the world is clean but when the people living in the world make it their duty to keep it clean.

HAPPY ONE YEAR, ONE MONTH ANNIVERSARY MSI AND MSAFITES!

Purity Wanjohi.

Founder

BUILDING THE "MSAFITE" MOVEMENT

The notion of volunteerism is often seen as a tool for peace and development. This is mainly due to its benefit to the individual volunteers and the contribution it makes to the peaceful coexistence of people within communities and the development of societies. Volunteering opportunities, especially at community level, tend to bring people together to work in solidarity towards addressing issues and challenges affecting communities. They are a way of giving back responsibly and adding value to community projects. But volunteering is also a major driving force for environmental sustainability and protection of natural resources. 

Since August 2013, Mazingira Safi Initiative has made significant strides towards building a community based waste management system in Nairobi and inspiring communities to take up the responsibility of cleaning their environment. The initiative is just one powerful example that exists in different parts of Kenya and the world at large of people uniting and mobilizing action through volunteerism to address the challenges of litter, improper waste disposal, and individual attitude against environmental cleanliness.  Just like the greenbelt movement, which, through the power and support of volunteers managed to empower communities, especially women in communities, to improve their livelihoods by conserving the environment, the initiative is using the power of volunteers to gradually building a strong movement of “clean freaks”, also known as “msafites”. These are individuals from all walks of life who are radical about the cleanliness of the environment.

A movement is comprised of radically minded individuals who are brought together by their desperation to be the change they want to see. History has it that movements can bring down outdated systems, overthrow poorly run governments, and caused terror among those in opposition to positive change. If the combined effort of the ever growing 1000+ "MSafites" is well facilitated, then this will not only support the attainment of environmentally sustainable outcomes but also promote a long lasting process that changes people’s attitudes and perceptions towards the environment and encourage resilience towards realization of change.  Volunteering is a critical driving force that will continue to build the “Msafite movement”. 

Volunteers during one of the MSI's cleanups

All Kenyans should be part of this new wave of clean freaks and give first priority to the environment and the well-being of people before anything else.  Without sustainability, problems such as poverty can never end because pollution, uncleanliness, and environmental disasters deeply affect the poor. Supporting and encouraging each other to be environmental ambassadors in our most immediate environment, puts us in the right path towards achieving sustainability. What Nairobi and the whole of Kenya needs, is msafites and like minded individuals to mobilize resources to ensure that the streets, neighborhoods, towns, and markets remain clean.

It takes our collective effort to ensure streets remain this clean.

Article written by Kelly Wale