190 ANNE M. KARANJA, MOSES M. IKIARA, THEO C. DAVIES
to enhance competitiveness in the face of a harsh business environment in turn
resulting from the harsh economic conditions prevailing in the country. Both the
small-scale recyclers as well as the in-house waste recovery arrangements at the
Kamukunji grounds have been affected negatively.^29 The latter’s production costs
have increased while the in-house women’s group waste collection group’s main
waste materials outlet is now unreliable. These factors have weakened the economic
viability of the lower-income end actors in the commodity chain. Co-ordination at this
end of the chain is lacking or at best informal.
The NCC has no policy towards informal waste picking and its role in the waste mate-
rials recycling industry. JICA 1998 surmised that waste picking (or scavenging as they
called it)^30 was an economic ‘good’ that needed to be managed and controlled in a
‘socially acceptable’ manner. Their survey of Dandora waste pickers found ‘evidence
of disease, poverty, malnutrition and hunger’ and a meagre income of Ksh. 120 (US$ 2)
per day per picker. It appears that waste picking is a response to poverty and also to
the failure of the NCC to provide effective waste collection services. However, in
addition to income earning (cash and non-cash) waste picking also provides a de facto
waste collection and disposal service.
NGOs have no role in waste picking and trade activities. These activities are typically
perceived as private businesses without any role in community development or urban
waste management. At the community level, accusations that the activities cause envi-
ronmental and health problems, including the bad odour and vermin (flies,
cockroaches, rodents) are common. Dealers have also been known to purchase items
stolen by domestic workers from households causing suspicion by householders and
sometimes disapproval on the location of waste buying shops or transactions within
the residential estate. Because of their type of work, presentation and conditions of
living, waste picker(s) are shunned in most residential areas in the city.
Socio-economic issues
Most of the actors in the commodity chain seem to earn only a subsistence income.
However, both itinerant byers and dealers who are more entrepreneurial earn rela-
tively higher incomes from their work. Whereas waste pickers abhor the involvement
- This recovery of recyclable scrap metal waste is carried out by a women’s group, the Kamukunji
Women’s Jua Kali Group. This group purchases most of the scrap metal produced by enterprises at the
grounds for sale to larger scale factories. The group has been allocated an area within the grounds for
sorting, puching and storage of the materials. - Their reproachful reference to it inadvertently buttressed the NCC’s dismissive perception. This hav-
ing been a government-initiated project is bound to influence policy. JICA only recognised the signif-
icance of waste picking in an argument that its eradication would possibly increase the level of crime
in the city and not as an aspect of SWM.