Female Journalists from Kakamega under their umbrella tag, Media Queens 037, have partnered with Butali Sugar Company to clean up Butali market as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The cleanup exercise follows concerns raised by locals and business people in the market about the accumulation of waste for the past two years.
Local residents expressed fears that if the problem persisted, it could have led to an outbreak of diseases such as Cholera.
Butali Chegulo Member of County Assembly (MCA), Kevin Maelo, who took part in the clean-up exercise, complained that the available dumpsites are far from the market, a reason why most of the people dumped waste in the place.
He said they depend on the Mung’ang’a dumpsite located in Mumias West, which is far from the market. “The county should establish a dumpsite in every sub county to make it easy for dumping of waste,” Maelo noted.
Maelo thanked the Butali Sugar Company managers for providing tractors to transport waste to the dumpsite and called upon the Kakamega County Government’s Departments of Environment to provide tractors that will be ferrying waste generated in the market to the nearest dumpsite.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Butali Football Club, Amberjet Asena appreciated the support from everyone who participated in the clean-up exercise to ensure a healthy environment in the market.
Asena, who represented the company in the clean-up exercise, assured locals in the area that the company is always ready to support and help whenever they have a need.
During the clean-up exercise, business persons in the market led by their chair, Moses Tuvaka requested the ministries responsible, to also fix water scarcity challenges in the market, build more toilet facilities and offer enough security besides ensuring the place remains clean at all times.
The chair of Media Queens 037, Journalist Milicent Kubai, who works with West Media, said that apart from being journalists they have a role to play by helping the community.
She asked relevant authorities to put in place stricter measures against careless dumping of waste in the market. “I also call upon the County Government to allocate more funds in the environment sector to establish enough dumpsites in all sub counties,” Kubai added.
The clean-up exercise is the recent activity that the Media Queens 037 have engaged in their bid to extend support to community members.
Media Queens 037 was formed in September 2019 by a group of 12 female Journalists from Kakamega drawn from different media houses.
Ms Kubai said they formed the association where they could raise funds to support members of the community and extend other CSR activities apart from working as journalists.
“We have been filing stories of despair where in some cases, we had to support the source before we could send the stories for publication, these experiences forced us to form the association,” she said.
She says they raise funds through table banking, part of which is used to support their activities.
The first project they engaged in was a visit to a children’s home, Precious Virginia in Matungu, which takes care of children with cerebral palsy. They donated sanitary towels to the charity home.
They also visited Arise and Shine children’s home in Shianda, which also takes care of the widows and extended their support by donating foodstuffs.
Kubai noted that they also visit schools to offer motivational talks to students despite being slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Moses Wekesa and Cynthia Kerubo
