As an indication of the growth of our work, Clean Up Kenya Founder and CEO, Betterman Simidi, has been invited to join other leaders in a panel discussion on pollution at the UN Environment Assembly which is opening in Nairobi this week.

The UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), the world’s highest level decision making body on the environment, will gather in Nairobi from November 27 to December 6, 2017.

The UN Environment Assembly has the universal membership of all 193 UN Member States and the full involvement of UN organizations, specialized agencies, inter-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector. In bringing together these varied communities, the Assembly provides a groundbreaking platform for leadership on global environmental policy.

This year’s Assembly and its side events will confront pollution in its various forms. The Assembly aims to deliver a number of tangible commitments to end the pollution of our air, land, waterways, and oceans, and to safely manage our chemicals and waste.

At the panel discussion, which will also be attended by Kenya’s National Environmental Management Authority Director-General, Prof. Goeffrey Wahungu, among others, we will discuss the merits and successes as well as challenges to Kenya’s groundbreaking plastics carrier bags ban which was introduced in August 2017. At this discussion, Betterman will argue that while the plastic carrier ban is a step in the right direction, the ban needs to be part of a comprehensive plan to solve Kenya’s waste management crisis. He will also propose that Kenya need to use the window of opportunity the ban has created to come up with a waste management plan that incorporates citizens participation, collaborations from government, the business community and civil society and strengthening available policy frameworks.