248 T.C. DAVIES, M.M. IKIARA, A.M. KARANJA, C. FUREDY
Beside composting, the use of raw materials such as poultry waste and cow dung as
manure as well as food waste from hotels, markets and other institutions, as animal
feed has emerged as waste reuse activities that are helping to reduce organic waste
load in Nairobi. In addition, the Mukuru Recycling Centre (MRC), among its varied
activities is pioneering the production and use of fuel briquettes as part of their waste
conversion strategies. A good proportion of sticks in the municipal waste load is also
collected by poor people in the City for use as fuel wood, which also accounts for a
reduction of the total organic waste load generated.
Composting groups
Data from our fieldwork reveal that the functional composting groups in Nairobi,
which currently number about 20, are generally young, nearly all of them having been
established in the 1990s. Nearly 60 percent of these groups were established between
1994 and 1998.
Group membership currently ranges from as low as five members to as high as 62,
although previously one of the groups had a membership of 200. Sixty percent of the
groups have current membership of between 20 and 50 persons, and there appears to
be a gender balance in membership, with women accounting for about 49 percent of
the total.
Composting groups were formed in a variety of ways, but mainly through collective
initiative by a group of persons in activities that eventually led to composting. The
initial spur for the formation of a composting group seems to be economic gain.
Seventy percent of the groups surveyed indicated that they were formed as a way of
creating jobs through which members could earn sufficient income for improving their
living standards. Another important objective relates to the desire to improve the
sanitary and general hygienic conditions of their estates. Several composting groups
in addition involve themselves in other community activities such as providing public
education on improved waste disposal practices, and provision of health services.
Eighty percent of all composting groups had some assistance in getting started, with
50 percent of all the groups citing international organizations such as the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Centre for Human Settle-
ments (HABITAT) as their original sponsors Forty percent of the groups say they
received assistance from local NGOs such as the Uvumbuzi Club.
Eighty percent of the composting groups operate from NCC land which has been allo-
cated to them without the payment of rent and some groups, such as the Mukuru Recy-
cling Group have actually reclaimed the land on which they are operating from waste
dumps.