http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/01/04/kenya.cleanup.ap/index.html

750 tons of garbage removed from Kenya market

Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Posted: 9:45 AM EST (1445 GMT)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Workers at Kenya's main market killed some 6,000 rats, trucked away 750 tons (680 metric tons) of garbage and sucked 70 tons (64 metric tons) of human waste out of latrines in three days of the first major cleanup of the market in 30 years, an official said Tuesday.

The Wakulima Market, which supplies fresh food to most of Nairobi's 3 million residents, was a public health hazard, with rubbish piling up 2 meters (7 feet) deep in some places, said Local Government Minister Musikari Kombo.

"Was I shocked? I was traumatized by the rot," Kombo told The Associated Press. "We were lucky to be spared a major outbreak of disease."

City council workers used 160,000 liters (42,269 gallons) of water in the cleanup operation, Kombo said, adding that some traders who operated at the market for years were surprised to see that a tarmac existed below the garbage.

Kombo, who ordered the closure of the market for cleaning last week, said 270 workers were involved in the operation.

Hundreds of traders had marched to his office Monday to protest the closure of the market that was described Tuesday by Kenya's oldest independent newspaper, The Standard, as "easily one of the dirtiest markets in the world."

News on the extent of the filth at the market sparked public calls for members of the City Council of Nairobi to resign.

"It is singularly disheartening that the biggest retail market in the country could suffer from the kind of neglect that has recently been exposed at Wakulima," the newspaper said in an editorial. "If there was a good reason for the mayor and the entire council to resign, this is it."

The council needs a major overhaul to end years of mismanagement, endemic corruption, fraud, embezzlement, misuse and waste of resources and outright abuse of office, said an investigative report presented to Kombo last August.

The Kenyan government has commissioned 15 probe committees, task forces, special committees, independent consultants and others to study problems facing the council, but no significant action has been taken to rectify the situation, the report said.

The council loses as much as six billion shillings (US$77 million, euro58 million) a year as a result of corruption and mismanagement in its ranks, Kombo said late last year.

"The rats and the filth at the market reflects the rot of mismanagement within the city council," said Minister of State for Public Service William Ole Ntimama, who once held a Cabinet position that supervised the council.