First and foremost, I appreciate the fact that the government of Kenya has taken the initiative of banning the use of plastic bags. It’s a measure taken to ensure our environment is conserved and protected since plastic is non biodegradable hence not environmental friendly.
Other than that, I think the government should have done a test ban with one town or estate and see the results. If positive, they would therefore go ahead and ban countrywide. But if not, they would have looked for other alternatives.
Personally, I do believe even when plastic will be banned, if the citizens are not well informed about the importance of a clean environment, that won’t be effective since there are other pollutants other than plastic.
In my opinion, I think the public should have been educated on the importance of clean environment before the banning of plastic bags and implementing other environment related by-laws.
This plastic ban shall affect the economy as much as its environmental friendly. Companies will have to shut down or venture into a different field which will leave hundreds or thousands jobless. As we all know, lack of employment increases crime rate in our society. Have you thought of how the common ‘mwananchi‘ shall survive? Especially business men/women? Look at the scenario for ‘mama mboga‘ and all those people who offer plastic bags as after sales services to their customers.
Let’s not forget Kenya is a third world country and it might not manage to deal with this ban. Kenya is struggling with economy growth and development to be able to cope with the ban. Yes our environment holds everything but when you look deep into the matter, this isn’t sustainable.
Lets not think plastic ban will make Kenya the cleanest state! It takes discipline of the citizens to achieve that!
On the brighter side, the basket industry shall be boosted. “Kiondos” and simple biodegradable bags will be on high demand hence providing employment opportunities for art industry.
All in all, am in support of plastic ban and I pray and hope we the people shall make our environment clean. The power is in us, the people!