90 MOSES M. IKIARA, ANNE M. KARANJA AND THEO C. DAVIES
waste collection service due to their ‘illegal’ nature, poor accessibility, weak political
voice, and lack of service purchasing power. The NCC, which is concentrating its
limited capacity to wealthier areas, is apparently insensitive to the needs of a majority
of its citizens and thereby ignores the external costs of poor public health in these
areas. The disconcerting lack of equity in servicing is probably the single most impor-
tant threat to more sustainable solid waste management. The authorities have to come
to terms with the phenomenon of illegal settlement in order to make any meaningful
city-wide progress
Second, the administration of Nairobi is chaotic, with the NCC and the Central
Government often clashing, duplicating roles, and causing confusion. Moreover, poli-
cymakers (NCC councillors) are generally poorly educated and lack power to disci-
pline NCC officials and workers The mayor, who is elected by the councillors, owes
allegiance to their greedy demands rather than to Nairobi residents. Consequently,
mismanagement, corruption, laziness, and general chaos have become the hallmarks
of the NCC. This dysfunctional local administrative system has led to the collapse of
direct public servicing, but also to the absence of system-wide co-ordination and regu-
lation of other actors in solid waste collection (the NCC’s indirect provision role).
Private sector involvement in solid waste collection is uncontrolled, adversely
affecting effectiveness. Its spontaneous nature implies that it is driven purely by
market concerns at the expense of social and public interests.
Third, there is not something like an “integrated” solid waste management system in
Nairobi, nor any policy to move in that direction. Relationships between collection,
recycling and composting activities, for example, are accidental rather than structural.
They do not result from any concerted NCC action, but arise from ‘spontaneous’ initi-
atives in civil society. The potential for creating positive spin-offs, therefore, is not
reaped. Furthermore, the idea of partnerships between various actors, each contrib-
uting their own specific qualities, is not yet taken up seriously. Residential Associa-
tions, for example, could effectively supervise and monitor private solid waste
collection firms and see to it that they respect service standards. Another distressing
aspect of this lack of integration is that various categories of waste are all mixed up.
Relatively harmless waste, therefore, becomes contaminated by toxic and dangerous
substances, thereby turning collection points and dumpsites into environmental and
public health hazards. It still remains to be seen whether the Environmental Manage-
ment and Coordination Act (1999), which provides for a more integrative approach to
solid waste management, will really help to solve these problems.
4.10. CONCLUSIONS
Only about 25 percent of the solid waste generated in Nairobi gets collected. The rest
is dumped in open spaces, making the city terribly dirty. The unplanned settlements
where about 60 percent of the city residents live do not receive any solid waste collec-