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A waste management contract worth about $130 million in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa has triggered legal and political scrutiny, drawing attention to Ghanaian businessman Joseph Siaw Agyepong and his Jospong Group, whose sanitation arm is linked to the deal.
The agreement, reported in regional briefings, is tied to Zoomlion, a sanitation company widely associated with the Jospong stable. The size and structure of the contract have prompted petitions and public questions around procurement, approvals and the long term financial impact on residents, turning a routine service issue into a high stakes political fight.
Agyepong is not a stranger to big municipal contracts. He built Jospong into one of Ghana’s best known waste and environmental services groups by treating sanitation as a full value chain business, from collection to processing and recycling. His companies operate fleets, transfer stations and downstream facilities, selling city governments the promise of cleaner streets and more predictable service delivery.
That playbook is now being tested in a new arena. Jospong has been openly scouting Kenya as part of a broader expansion drive across Africa. The group has described Mombasa as a strategic entry point for East Africa, a city with rapid growth, tourism pressure and a visible waste challenge that local authorities have struggled to manage consistently.
During a high profile visit to Mombasa, Agyepong met county leadership and pitched structured investment, equipment deployment and job creation. Company messaging framed the talks as a partnership that could modernize waste handling and reduce environmental strain. The push matched a familiar Jospong strategy: secure a long term municipal anchor, then build supporting infrastructure around it.
In Mombasa, that long horizon is exactly what has alarmed critics. Activists and civic groups have questioned whether the public had adequate visibility into a deal of this size, and whether the county followed proper procedures for a contract that could shape waste fees, land use and service delivery for years. Court filings cited in local reporting indicate petitioners have asked judges to halt or review elements of the agreement, arguing that transparency and public participation were not sufficient.
Political pressure has also been building. Calls for oversight have moved into the national conversation, with demands that lawmakers and regulators examine how the agreement was awarded and what safeguards exist for value for money. The intensity reflects a reality in many African cities: waste contracts sit at the intersection of public health, budgets and patronage, making them magnets for scrutiny.
Agyepong’s prominence has amplified the story. In Ghana, Zoomlion and related entities have long been at the center of debates about sanitation financing and state contracts, even as supporters credit the company with professionalizing services and creating thousands of jobs. That history means his moves outside Ghana tend to travel with a ready made narrative, both admiration for scale and skepticism about governance.
Supporters of the Mombasa plan argue the city needs industrial capacity, not patchwork solutions, and that a large operator can bring equipment, systems and financing that smaller contractors cannot. Critics counter that size is not a substitute for accountability, and that mega contracts must come with maximum disclosure.
Mombasa’s waste problem is urgent, and residents will judge the outcome in simple terms: cleaner streets, reliable collection and fair costs. The unresolved question is whether the deal can survive the courts and politics long enough to be tested on performance.
