Thirteen people have been arrested and arraigned before the KMA Court for various sanitation-related offences.
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), in a renewed effort to clamp down on insanitary conditions in the city, has reintroduced its enhanced sanitation enforcement exercise, popularly known as “Samansaman.”
Residents of homes, shop operators, churches, and hospitality facilities in the Dichemso suburb of Kumasi were taken by surprise when the sanitation enforcement taskforce, popularly referred to as “Samansaman,” descended on the area.
The taskforce, made up of military personnel and KMA sanitation officers, moved from one property to another to inspect sanitary conditions.
In some households, waste littered compounds, while gutters running through parts of the community were heavily choked with plastic waste and silt, preventing the free flow of wastewater.
The exercise was met with some resistance from residents, while others were ordered to clean their frontages.
At the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the area, the church administrator was arrested over the unkempt state of the church premises.
Explaining the arrest, the Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Henrietta Afia Konadu Aboagye, said:
“When we came here, we observed that the frontage was unsanitary. The Chief Inspector spoke with them and informed them that they would be taken to court as part of the sanitation enforcement exercise.
“The administrator refused to go. She said she was calling her boss to come, but the boss never showed up. She also refused to move after we had asked her to do so.
“We came back peacefully with another team, but she still refused to comply, so we had to escort her by force so that her superiors could meet her in court.”
Kwaku Poku, an Environmental Health Officer with the KMA, said the exercise forms part of renewed efforts to restore Kumasi to its status as the Garden City of Ghana.
He stressed that the initiative would be sustained until residents fully comply with sanitation regulations.
“It is going to continue for as long as KMA exists,” he said.
