The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has relaunched its enhanced sanitation enforcement exercise, popularly known as "Samansaman," as part of renewed efforts to improve cleanliness and environmental discipline across the metropolis.

The exercise, which resumed on Monday, July 6, 2026, involves a joint task force comprising environmental health officers, personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service.

The team has begun patrolling selected areas within Kumasi to identify, arrest and prosecute individuals and institutions that violate sanitation regulations.

During the exercise, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Dechemso in Kumasi were arrested after the task force found the frontage of the church premises in an unsanitary condition.

JoyNews’ correspondent, Emmanuel Bright Quaicoe, reported that about five officials of the church, including an administrator, were picked up by the joint task force.

Speaking to JoyNews, the Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Henrietta Afia Aboagye, said the church officials were initially given an opportunity to cooperate with the enforcement team before the arrests were made.

"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 peacefully again, sent another team, she still didn’t come, so we had to come and forcefully take her so that the bosses will meet her in court," she explained.

Madam Aboagye disclosed that the enforcement team had been divided into two groups to cover different parts of the metropolis.

She said the team she joined had arrested seven people for various sanitation offences.

According to her, many of the violations identified during the operation involved the dumping of construction waste in front of homes and other properties.

“Mostly, the ones we found were the accumulation of construction waste. We realised that people were renovating their houses and they had dumped the debris in front of their houses, and when it rains, it goes into the drains,” she said.

She added that the offenders would be processed for court as part of measures to ensure compliance with sanitation regulations.

"Those are the things we have noticed, and we have taken them into custody, and we are taking them to the Prempeh Assembly Hall court," she stated.

The KMA says the revival of the "Samansaman" initiative forms part of broader efforts to improve sanitation, prevent flooding caused by blocked drains and promote responsible waste management practices within the Kumasi metropolis.