'Don’t compromise on plastic bags ban'

I am as against plastic bags as anyone, and would certainly hope every country in the East African Community would do the right thing and ban this highly polluting stuff from production, import, distribution and use. But if Uganda insists on continuing to clog its own environment with plastics and to entice Kenyan plastics manufacturers to cross over, there is nothing anybody can do to stop Kampala from doing so.

Friday, September 08, 2017

Editor,

RE: "Don’t compromise on plastic bags ban” (The New Times, September 8).

I am as against plastic bags as anyone, and would certainly hope every country in the East African Community would do the right thing and ban this highly polluting stuff from production, import, distribution and use. But if Uganda insists on continuing to clog its own environment with plastics and to entice Kenyan plastics manufacturers to cross over, there is nothing anybody can do to stop Kampala from doing so.

It will be up to Kenya to ensure none of those producing plastics in Uganda—or anywhere else for that matter—can smuggle it into Kenya. Rwanda has been quite successful in interdicting such smuggling into our country, and I see no reason Kenya cannot similarly succeed in doing so.

Mwene Kalinda