Effective September 1st 2020 Betterman Simidi and Martin Muriithi will be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer and Country Director of Clean Up Kenya respectively. This is after managing the organization for the last five years and successfully positioning it as a national public sanitation advocacy brand.

The organization will now be run by a team of younger persons led by Monica Ngatia who will be taking over as Country Director. Monica is 24 years and joined Clean Up Kenya as an intern in 2017 before being retained as a Project Assistant.

Commenting on her appointment, Betterman has stated ‘She has helped Clean Up Kenya expand and develop. She has been a project leader in initiatives we have conducted in Ilbisil, Ngong, Dagoretti, Langata and Kayole to name but a few. Monica is very passionate about issues of the environment and we have no doubt that she will continue to work with all stakeholders to make Kenya an example in public sanitation management.’

Martin has stated, ‘Monica is Godsend. She walked into Clean Up Kenya looking for an internship. We have had many interns. But Monica was different. She is our person.’

While accepting this appointment, Monica has stated that it will not be business as usual for consumer brands who continue to pollute the environment, especially those who produce plastic bottles. Monica stated, ‘Betterman has done a great job to set up Clean Up Kenya. Together with Martin, they have mentored us. They have been quite diplomatic in solving issues of waste in Kenya. Now Clean Up Kenya is being handed to the youth. The youth we don’t know diplomacy. It is time consumer brands account for the mess they continue to cause. It is also time for the government to provide a more enabling environment for sanitation issues to be solved.’

ABOUT CLEAN UP KENYA

Clean Up Kenya was established in 2015 to advocate for and promote sustainable public sanitation in Kenya. Since then we have become the defacto national public sanitation advocacy brand. We are also experts in community mobilising for cleanups. We have done numerous cleanups over the years, some of which have been attended by over 1000 volunteers on singular sites. At the core of our work is honest and actual engagement in communities – not PR events. We also run advocacy campaigns holding duty bodies, consumer brands, greenwashing NGOs and other stakeholders to account for unsustainable public sanitation in Kenya and the global South. We receive no funding for our work but collaborate with others on projects.