Clever residents of Dandora have turned East Africa’s largest dump into a cash cow

Mwangi alights from a Toyota Probox car dressed in a navy blue suit, a white shirt and a matching tie. It is around 1 p.m. in the afternoon and the sun is scorching over Dandora. This is not his only car; he claims to own a Mercedes
Benz. He immediately enters into a room and comes out a few minutes later in a tattered pair of jeans, matching shirt and gum boots. He soon trudges through the filth at Dandora dumpsite and joins his employees 30 employees who earn a living from sifting through the garbage to look for recyclable items.
Whether you choose to call it the Dandora Dumpsite or Capital Boma Market—as some do—the Dandora dumpsite is a capital market which employs more than 5,000 residents from Dandora and other slums. Mwangi has been working at Boma Market since he lost his father in 1987 while in class six. He is now one of the leaders who control the dump.
“When my father died, I was left with my mother, sister and two brothers and we were very poor at that time,” He said.
Since I wanted to help my family to put something on the table I decided to join garbage collection.Things were very difficult but I learnt with time.” he explained.
Mwangi now owns three Lorries. He uses them to ferry garbage from different locations around Nairobi on a daily basis. His main customers are Nakumatt Holdings, Kawangware Market and sometimes from the Jomo Kenyatta International Market (JKIA). “Each lorry goes three round trips per day.” He said.
“After the garbage has been emptied, we immediately sort it out and select what we think can be recycled. This includes plastic bags, containers and metals. This is what we sell to recycling companies.” He added.
"20,000 shillings daily"
Mwangi is among thousands of garbage transporters, recyclers and handcart pushers who rely on the site for survival since the first batch of garbage was dumped there in 1975. He makes 20,000 shillings per day and each of his 30 employees earns 1,500 shillings. Most of the political aspirants in the just concluded elections used the dumpsite to bargain for votes. Newly elected Nairobi City Governor Evans Kidero said it can be transformed into a big industry. “The dumpsite (sic) can employ thousands of people around Nairobi if we thought of starting a recycling plant in the area,” he said during one of his campaigns in the area.
"Respiratory diseases"
Dandora, which is home to the site, was listed as one of the most polluted
areas in the world by the blacksmith institute. A study conducted by the United Nations Environmental Programme in 2007 found that about half of the 330 children living near the dumpsite suffered from respiratory illnesses.
“I am afraid that my health is not good because the air that we breathe around here but I have to appreciate this is where I make a living.” Said David Kwamboka who has been working there for 12 years. He makes an average of 1000 shillings per day. Margaret Atieno, who this I found with her two children sifting through the garbage for recyclable items, said she started working there even before the birth of her first born. “One of my two girls is now a student at Makerere University and the other one is at Mombasa Polytechnic.” She said Joseph Omondi, a school dropout is perhaps one of the best success stories of people who work at the dump. “Last year I collected gold worth 30 thousand shillings, silver of 50 thousand and also 25 thousand shillings in cash after a lorry from JKIA dropped rejected dumps,” He claimed. From the proceeds he has managed to build his mother a permanent house in the area and another one in his rural home.
There has been an attempt to relocate the 32 acre dumpsite which was declared full by the City Council in 2002 to Ruai but the Airports Authority resisted the move saying birds which are attracted to dumpsites are will be risky to aeroplanes.