70 MOSES M. IKIARA, ANNE M. KARANJA AND THEO C. DAVIES
NCC
Collection performance
The NCC is still a significant provider of SW collection and transportation service and
exclusively provides street cleansing and disposal services. The NCC delivers solid
waste collection services through the cleansing section of the Department of Environ-
ment (DOE), employing 2,416 people for that task (1998). Responsibilities of the
DOE include implementation of solid waste management policies formulated by the
Environment Committee, maintenance of public cleanliness, protection of public
health and environment, maintenance of aesthetic quality, provision of solid waste
collection and treatment services, regulation and monitoring of waste generators,
regulation and monitoring of private sector involvement, enforcement of all solid
waste management laws and regulations, and coordination of agencies involved in
solid waste management. For operational purposes, the city is divided into two divi-
sions, each with three districts. Each district provides SW collection and transporta-
tion and street cleansing services. Besides these tasks, Embakasi district manages the
Dandora dumpsite also. District sizes vary in terms of staff size, with the Central and
Western districts having the largest.
NCC provision of solid waste collection services has been dismal in the last two
decades. By 1998, NCC was collecting only 80 tons of solid waste per day (JICA,
1998) compared to 270-350 as recent as 1992 (Syagga, 1992). The NCC no longer
schedules services and provides them only when and where most needed. It largely
serves core areas like airports, CBD, hospitals and politically sensitive residential
areas. Thus, NCC services are concentrated in the same areas that private providers
are concentrated in, e.g. those areas and institutions that can afford private service at
the expense of areas inhabited by the poor (JICA, 1998). The eastern edge hardly
receives any NCC solid waste collection service. Low-income areas receive service
only when garbage poses ‘a health hazard’, when there is public outcry, or during
environmental clean-up days. The NCC no longer distributes storage bins although it
charges for it in all water bills. Clients served by the NCC use anything available for
storage, including plastic buckets and sisal sacks.
Vehicles and equipment
The number and quality of NCC’s refuse transport vehicles and other equipment have
declined enormously. Refuse trucks, for instance, dropped from 60 in 1969 to only 21
by 1992 while supervision vehicles reduced from 35 to 4 over the same period
(Kibwage, 1996). The number of operational waste transportation trucks had fallen
further to only 15 by 1998 (JICA, 1998). In February 2001, NCC’s Deputy Mayor
informed the press that only 22 out of the 202 refuse collection trucks were opera-
tional, against a requirement of 235. Most of the trucks used by the NCC, moreover,
are in a bad state of repair. Its open trucks have low capacity and cause substantial
littering while the imported highly mechanised trucks are difficult to maintain and