172 ANNE M. KARANJA, MOSES M. IKIARA, THEO C. DAVIES
and require specialisation and are thus deemed unfeasible especially by street waste
pickers Hence a relatively higher presence at the dumpsites.
Although not indicated on the diagram, food waste is also extensively collected
largely for direct consumption. Other materials salvaged for direct reuse include
clothes, food, household items, and fuel wood. Amongst waste pickers only 3 percent
reported not reusing any of the waste materials recovered. Unless one has a supple-
mentary source of income (which is not the case with these groups), it is unlikely that
a monthly income averaging Ksh. 3,000 (US$ 40), can support an average HH size of
4 for street waste picker(s) and 6 for dump waste picker(s). Both had an average share
contribution of household expenses of Ksh. 1,600 (US$ 22) per month. 75 percent and
57 percent of street and dump pickers respectively are married with children.
8.7. ITINERANT BUYERS
Mali kwa mali^8
(Kiswahili for ‘itinerant buyers’) were amongst the earliest type of hawkers to be
recognised in Nairobi. In 1967, the City Council issued up to 50 licenses for barter
hawking (Hake, 1977: 180). Itinerant buyers in current Nairobi are also largely men,
older (average age was 49 years) than waste pickers and long-time residents in the city.
Their main mode of waste segregation is on a house-to-house basis and is motivated
by the need to access ‘uncontaminated’ waste. This activity is concentrated in the
middle and high-income residential areas but is on the decline. Like waste pickers,
Itinerant buyers have low educational and skill levels but have spent a relatively longer
time in waste work. They have more experience and also involve family in the sorting,
cleaning or packing of the materials gathered, which is normally carried out at home.
Itinerant buying of waste materials in Nairobi became noticeable in the early 1970s and
was initially via barter. Itinerant buyers provided new household utility items like
buckets and kitchenware obtained from wholesale shops in the city. In exchange itin-
erant buyers obtained bottles, tin cans, newspapers as well as items of clothing, which
they sold to traders at ‘gikomba’, the largest open-air second-hand clothes market in the
city. From here the materials were sold to individual consumers and probably found their
way back to households. Exchange deals involved a lot of haggling with each party
trying to maximise their gains. The itinerant buyers interviewed in this study remi-
nisced over the diminished economic viability^9. The activity was also more respect-
able and largely done out of choice.
Though the main motivation and types of materials bought have remained the same,
new players have been added to the commodity chain. In the upper income areas,
- Literally meaning, ‘goods for goods’, denoting the earlier mode of reclaiming waste via barter
between itinerant buyers and households.