Solid Waste Management and Recycling

MOSES M. IKIARA, ANNE M. KARANJA AND THEO C. DAVIES

CHAPTER 4

COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL OF URBAN

SOLID WASTE IN NAIROBI

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Nairobi is literally under garbage. Of the estimated 1,500 tons of solid waste generated

daily in the city, only about 25 percent gets collected. The rest is left in open spaces,

markets, bus stops, drains and roadsides forming mountains of rotting, smelly and

unsightly waste. Discarded polythene papers of all colours and sizes decorate the city

landscape. Solid waste collection, transport, and disposal are thus generally chaotic. It

has not been always so, however. As recently as 1977, the Nairobi City Council

(NCC) collected almost all the waste generated. Dismal performance started in the late

1970s and persists.

Poor NCC performance stimulated entry of private sector and community actors into

the solid waste collection sector. They are, however, operating in a disorderly manner

without regulation or guidance. For example, waste pickers board open waste trucks

as they transport waste to the dumpsite, pick on top of the moving trucks, toss out

whatever they find no use for, and litter the entire route without control. Moreover,

waste pickers and dealers illegally control the NCC-owned and operated dumpsite,

forcing the NCC and private companies to ‘bribe’ to access the dump. Lack of control

and guidance hinders utilization of the full potential of private sector and civil society

involvement.

Marked skewness in the geographical service distribution also reduces social support

of existing solid waste collection services. High-income and some middle-income

residential areas together with commercial areas are well serviced by private compa-

nies and even the NCC. Small private firms are also increasingly servicing some of the

relatively better low-income areas. The core low-income areas (slums and other

unplanned settlements) where 55-60 percent of Nairobi residents live, however,

receive no waste collection service, save for localised interventions by CBOs.

Broadly, the Western part of the city is well serviced by the private firms and the NCC

while the Eastern part is hardly serviced.

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I. Baud et al. (eds.), Solid Waste Management and Recycling, 61-91.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.