The Major General Mohamed Badi-led administration said the new garbage trucks will be made available to garbage contractors who were recently hired by the entity.
Currently NMS has 22 trucks collecting garbage across all the 17 sub-counties and five more have been procured but not yet delivered.
The 22 trucks are part of county government vehicles restored by NMS last year October after they were grounded for more than eight years.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is set to step up garbage collection in the city by using 210 additional garbage trucks to collect solid wastes across the capital.
This follows uproar over explosion of solid waste in Nairobi with mounds of garbage strewn everywhere.
The Major General Mohamed Badi-led administration said the new garbage trucks will be made available to garbage contractors who were recently hired by the entity.
Currently NMS has 22 trucks collecting garbage across all the 17 sub-counties and five more have been procured but not yet delivered.
The 22 trucks are part of county government vehicles restored by NMS last year October after they were grounded for more than eight years.
More than 3,000 tonnes of solid waste is generated in Nairobi County daily by the over four million city residents. However, the daily collection is slightly over 2,000 tonnes.
To bridge the existing gap, NMS Environment Deputy Director Ms Maureen Njeri said they have hired additional garbage collectors who will be required to come with their trucks.
This will see the number of trucks available for garbage collection in Nairobi increased from the current 22 trucks to 232.
“We are done with the procurement process and what is remaining is issuing out the contract letters,” said Ms Njeri.
The deputy director pointed out that the contractors will be picking up garbage at the gazetted collection points across all 85 wards in Nairobi, adding that each ward has at least a collection point depending on its population.
“Some wards have more population than others meaning they generate more waste than others resulting in more than one collection points,” she said.
She said NMS is still attempting to clear garbage backlog that had piled up in previous years, adding that the available trucks can only focus on where garbage has piled up for months.
The deputy director, however, blamed dumping of garbage in illegal collection sites as contributing to the eyesore witnessed in the city.
“The trucks are forced to do more rounds than expected but can only focus on where the garbage has piled up for months. But with the additional trucks, all garbage will now be cleared,” she said.
Last month, NMS has set in motion plans to replace human garbage sweepers in the central business district (CBD) by introducing high-tech mechanical sweepers.
This was aimed at reducing over-reliance on labour-intensive human sweepers who last year left the city centre chocking in waste after contracted garbage collectors dumped garbage in the streets protesting non-payment of wages of over three months.
In January, Maj-Gen Badi announced that his administration had advertised for private companies to help NMS in garbage collection and they were in the process of issuing the tenders.
He also said they were in the process of procuring a few modern garbage trucks that can compact the garbage to become solid to be able to carry more waste
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