Several arrested as Nairobi County officials crackdown on urinating and littering

Nairobi residents prone to indulging in bad habits such as urinating in the streets and littering found themselves in trouble on Friday night, as the city's enforcement units launched a crackdown against these behaviours within the Central Business District.

The turn of events caught many offenders by surprise with one man arrested while urinating against a wall, trying to shield himself, unaware that Nairobi County officials were lurking behind him.

Citizen TV captured the man as he tried to get away but swift county officials arrested him and immediately escorted him to the county inspectorate van.

Another man, in the open streets with nothing to shield him, had just finished "irrigating" the pavement. He too was blissfully ignorant of what awaits him and soon found himself in the hands of county enforcement officials, under arrest.

Nairobi's streets have become synonymous with littering, and street vendors were on the receiving end of the enforcement unit's efforts to check, if not stop, the habit altogether.

Peels from fruits and other litter made the vendors a target. The county officials forced the street vendors to pick up their heaps of trash and discard them appropriately.

The Nairobi Public Nuisance Act 2021 states that one risks being slapped with a Ksh.10,000 fine, a jail term of six months, or both for urinating or defecating in a public place.

Additionally, any person who provides unsanitary conditions where food is sold risks imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or a fine.

For the offenders who were among the first to be arrested, it may just be a lesson well learned—one that is likely to stick with them for a while.