BEWARE! Scrap metal in demand.

Scrap metal dealership in Nyeri County is no longer a business opportunity providing employment rather it has turned to be a downfall of development progress that is being frowned upon in the town.

The high demand of scrap metal has led to the rising rate of metal vandalism around the town and its outskirts.

Taking a walk around the town during odd hours, you meet hundreds of boys roaming in streets, with sacks to their backs and around the scrap metal dealers’ centres, and with them are magnets to assist them in their metal collection. Pieces of poles, iron sheets, cans, vehicle parts, aged cooking pans and the list is endless, make it into their sacks.

Making a keen observation, a decent lady walks along the streets, polythene bag in hand - she's scouting for a litter bin, bins that dotted almost all the streets in the town are no more. The bins that may fetch high prices have all been vandalized, this has in effect led to a dirty littered town.

Gaping manholes are now at the fore of the danger posed to both pedestrians and drivers, their covers have been vandalized.

Disappearance of billboards along the Nyeri highways has become the order of the day, it has resulted in business owners opting to use wooden boards for directions to reduce the risk of losesses their incur on mettalic ones. Banks and offices to have also not been spared with having to result to chaining or locking in their mud-scrappers to deter the would be collecters.

Speaking to the District Officer of National Environmental management Authority (NEMA) who is not happy with the vandalism, Mr. Muriithi said that the council has the authority to come up with by laws that will regulate the activities of every business in the municipality. Our efforts to get the town clerk were fruitless. Mr. Muriithi asked the council to take note or else they would initiate a court litigation for not taking any measures to curb this burning issue.

It is only a matter of time before residential areas too start realing with the effects of this vice. The scout memorial hasn't been spared either having to put measures in place to reduce their losses.

The most amazing and surprising thing is that some of these dealers use very suggestive business identification names. For example a scrap metal dealer within Nyeri town is using a title ‘VANDALICE SCRAP METAL DEALERS. Investigations shows that they are fully licensed.
This begs the question of who is to blame for the rising anormally.