10 Convicted As KMA Intensifies Sanitation Crackdown
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has intensified its campaign against environmental sanitation offences, resulting in the prosecution and conviction of 10 offenders by the Prempeh Assembly Hall Courts.
The move forms part of the Assembly’s ongoing efforts to enforce sanitation bye-laws and improve environmental cleanliness across the Kumasi Metropolis.
The offenders were arraigned before Prempeh Assembly Hall Courts 1 and 2, where His Worship Kwaku Ansah Akrofi and Her Worship Deborah Gyaawa Donkoh convicted them after they were found guilty of various sanitation-related offences.
Six of the offenders were each fined 100 penalty units, while two others were fined 140 penalty units each. Another offender was also fined 80 penalty units for breaching the Assembly’s sanitation regulations.
The offences ranged from keeping insanitary surroundings and allowing weeds to overgrow to storing abandoned items in inappropriate places, burning refuse within residential compounds, keeping an unvaccinated dog, discharging wastewater into public drains, and failing to maintain hygienic washroom facilities.
As part of the intensified enforcement exercise, the KMA sanitation task force extended its operation to Boakye Dankwah, popularly known as Dichemso, where several people were arrested for allegedly violating sanitation bye-laws.
While some residents complied with the directives of the task force, others claimed they were unaware of the Assembly’s sanitation regulations or had not received information about the public education campaign. Some residents reportedly locked themselves indoors in an attempt to evade the operation.
The Assembly has reiterated that ignorance of the law is not a defence and urged residents to play their part in keeping the city clean.
KMA further appealed to households, businesses and property owners to support the Clean Kumasi Campaign by properly disposing of waste, maintaining clean premises and complying with sanitation bye-laws to promote a healthier and cleaner metropolis.
