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Rwanda’s lesson for Uganda’s clean-up day
But as the Rwanda and Singapore successes show us, keeping the environment clean is not just about cleaning up on a specific day but about deciding from the start what we will no longer accept, writes Opiyo Oloya.
Opiyo Oloya. (File)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Opiyo Oloya
The world is not an endless space where we can dump garbage without thinking about the impact on our health and on the environment. The earth is small, fragile and very dirty because of human activities, and we must clean it up as best we can. Everyone, young and old, must do their part. That is why Uganda’s National Cleaning Day makes a lot of sense. Styled after Rwanda’s successful Umuganda, in which everyone aged 18-65 is required to take part while businesses close and transport stops, the initiative hopes to significantly reduce waste, improve public health and create a stronger culture of civic responsibility.
Although other African countries have introduced similar voluntary programmes, including Kenya’s youth-focused Kazi Mtaani, South Africa’s A Re Sebetseng (which in Sesotho means ‘Let us work’), launched in 2017, and Ghana’s National Sanitation Day, introduced in 2025, none has been as successful as Rwanda’s, which is credited with keeping the country clean and the environment safe.
Rwanda’s own national clean-up concept was likely borrowed from Singapore, which is styled as the cleanest city-state in the world, where the production, importation and sale of chewing gum is banned and where, under the Environmental Public Health Act, littering fetches escalating fines: Singapore $1,000 (sh3m) for a first offence and S$2,000-4,000 (sh6m-12m) for repeat offenders, sometimes paired with a Corrective Work Order that makes the offender clean public areas as punishment.
Uganda’s effort, launched in July, is only a few months old, and judging from reports from around the country, there is room for improvement because of very low uptake by citizens. Reports from Kampala, Jinja, Mubende, Kabale, Mbarara and Gulu indicate weak engagement from communities. One of the more positive stories came from Arua city, where bodaboda riders were engaged to help mobilise citizens to clean up.
But increasing civic participation in national cleaning must rely heavily on civic education and mobilisation rather than on heavy-handed confrontations, as happened in Kanaaba, Ndejje, Wakiso district, when 38-year-old bodaboda rider Ronald Jjuuko Kizito was tragically shot and killed by a police constable after apparently riding through a roadblock mounted by authorities during cleaning hours. Efforts to create healthy community involvement must include educating ordinary citizens to understand their role in keeping the environment clean. Communities must be told that maintaining a healthy population requires a clean environment to live in. That means doing whatever we can to clean up after ourselves, but even better, not littering.
Besides social media platforms such as TikTok, X, and Facebook, on which urban youths rely heavily, raising awareness across the country must, by and large, enlist radio stations throughout the day. It should be mandatory for radio stations, public and private, to devote a certain amount of airtime every day of the week to environmental cleanliness. The creativity or nature of public service announcements should be left to each station to decide, but the message must be very clear: Uganda has entered a new era in which environmental stewardship is an expectation of a responsible citizen.
Also, we tend to ignore our children on such matters, as if they do not exist on this earth. As a teacher, I can tell you that children are the best community mobilisers and are natural and effective allies in national campaigns for environmental sustainability. In Canada, for example, fire safety awareness and environmental stewardship are taught starting in kindergarten. It should be mandatory for every primary and secondary school in Uganda, public and private, to have children assemble on the Friday before the National Cleaning Day, when headteachers, teachers and matrons explain to them that it is their responsibility to remind their parents about the clean-up day. Empowered as mobilisers, children will be at the forefront of rounding up their busy parents to head out for the clean-up. Imagine how clean the National Cleaning Day will be when led by children: happy, enthusiastic and more vigorous. Kids get stuff done!
Of course, one cannot forget that Uganda already has a very robust local council system, in which, at the grassroots level, everyone knows everyone in the neighbourhood. LC1 is currently voluntary, unpaid work, but local government must arrange for LC1 officials to be paid as part of their efforts to mobilise their constituents door-to-door, ensuring everyone shows up on cleaning day. Absentees must explain why they could not make it. Those who are ill, those with medical needs and persons with obvious disabilities must be exempted from cleaning day.
Uganda’s effort, launched in July, is only a few months old, and judging from reports from around the country, there is room for improvement because of very low uptake by citizens. Reports from Kampala, Jinja, Mubende, Kabale, Mbarara and Gulu indicate weak engagement from communities. One of the more positive stories came from Arua city, where bodaboda riders were engaged to help mobilise citizens to clean up.
But increasing civic participation in national cleaning must rely heavily on civic education and mobilisation rather than on heavy-handed confrontations, as happened in Kanaaba, Ndejje, Wakiso district, when 38-year-old bodaboda rider Ronald Jjuuko Kizito was tragically shot and killed by a police constable after apparently riding through a roadblock mounted by authorities during cleaning hours. Efforts to create healthy community involvement must include educating ordinary citizens to understand their role in keeping the environment clean. Communities must be told that maintaining a healthy population requires a clean environment to live in. That means doing whatever we can to clean up after ourselves, but even better, not littering.
Besides social media platforms such as TikTok, X, and Facebook, on which urban youths rely heavily, raising awareness across the country must, by and large, enlist radio stations throughout the day. It should be mandatory for radio stations, public and private, to devote a certain amount of airtime every day of the week to environmental cleanliness. The creativity or nature of public service announcements should be left to each station to decide, but the message must be very clear: Uganda has entered a new era in which environmental stewardship is an expectation of a responsible citizen.
Also, we tend to ignore our children on such matters, as if they do not exist on this earth. As a teacher, I can tell you that children are the best community mobilisers and are natural and effective allies in national campaigns for environmental sustainability. In Canada, for example, fire safety awareness and environmental stewardship are taught starting in kindergarten. It should be mandatory for every primary and secondary school in Uganda, public and private, to have children assemble on the Friday before the National Cleaning Day, when headteachers, teachers and matrons explain to them that it is their responsibility to remind their parents about the clean-up day. Empowered as mobilisers, children will be at the forefront of rounding up their busy parents to head out for the clean-up. Imagine how clean the National Cleaning Day will be when led by children: happy, enthusiastic and more vigorous. Kids get stuff done!
Of course, one cannot forget that Uganda already has a very robust local council system, in which, at the grassroots level, everyone knows everyone in the neighbourhood. LC1 is currently voluntary, unpaid work, but local government must arrange for LC1 officials to be paid as part of their efforts to mobilise their constituents door-to-door, ensuring everyone shows up on cleaning day. Absentees must explain why they could not make it. Those who are ill, those with medical needs and persons with obvious disabilities must be exempted from cleaning day.
Moreover, at this very early stage of our environmental clean-up awareness, we must decide how to dispose of the garbage collected on National Cleaning Day.
Very little progress is made when the collected garbage is dumped elsewhere or burnt in a pile, creating more pollution and waste. Compostable material should be placed in one heap, combustible material such as firewood in another pile, and hard plastic elsewhere. The Government must urgently research the best measure for getting rid of the tonnes of plastic garbage that are collected. These cannot merely be moved from one place to another, and they cannot be buried because plastic will not disintegrate for many years to come. Instead, there must be a disposal solution, perhaps burning facilities where collected plastic is taken to be safely disposed of without causing pollution.
But as the Rwanda and Singapore successes show us, keeping the environment clean is not just about cleaning up on a specific day but about deciding from the start what we will no longer accept. When Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008 (one of the world’s first), then extended the ban to nearly all single-use plastics in 2019, outlawing plastic cups, straws, cutlery and packaging and imposing very heavy fines (up to $10,000), it drew a red line in the sand that nobody dared to cross.
It is a marvel, every time an international flight approaches landing at Kigali Airport, to see the sudden burst of activity as flight attendants round up every scrap of plastic, telling passengers that Rwanda bans all plastic. They take this duty very seriously because they know the consequences are heavy for those who dare to disobey the regulation.
Uganda’s National Cleaning Day will succeed, but more investment is needed in educating the population and building national awareness and acceptance that environmental clean-up is the work not of governments but of every citizen: young and old, women, men and children. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to keep our environment clean.
Opiyo.oloya@gmail.com. The writer is the inaugural associate vice-president, equity, diversity and inclusion at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
Very little progress is made when the collected garbage is dumped elsewhere or burnt in a pile, creating more pollution and waste. Compostable material should be placed in one heap, combustible material such as firewood in another pile, and hard plastic elsewhere. The Government must urgently research the best measure for getting rid of the tonnes of plastic garbage that are collected. These cannot merely be moved from one place to another, and they cannot be buried because plastic will not disintegrate for many years to come. Instead, there must be a disposal solution, perhaps burning facilities where collected plastic is taken to be safely disposed of without causing pollution.
But as the Rwanda and Singapore successes show us, keeping the environment clean is not just about cleaning up on a specific day but about deciding from the start what we will no longer accept. When Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008 (one of the world’s first), then extended the ban to nearly all single-use plastics in 2019, outlawing plastic cups, straws, cutlery and packaging and imposing very heavy fines (up to $10,000), it drew a red line in the sand that nobody dared to cross.
It is a marvel, every time an international flight approaches landing at Kigali Airport, to see the sudden burst of activity as flight attendants round up every scrap of plastic, telling passengers that Rwanda bans all plastic. They take this duty very seriously because they know the consequences are heavy for those who dare to disobey the regulation.
Uganda’s National Cleaning Day will succeed, but more investment is needed in educating the population and building national awareness and acceptance that environmental clean-up is the work not of governments but of every citizen: young and old, women, men and children. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to keep our environment clean.
Opiyo.oloya@gmail.com. The writer is the inaugural associate vice-president, equity, diversity and inclusion at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada