[dropcap]A[/dropcap] stretch of land hosting an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party office in Umoja estate in Nairobi has turned into messy dumping site choking area residents with smell. The uncollected garbage is rotting next to the office that used to host politicians during campaigns, some of whom are now elected leaders in Nairobi.
During the 2017 electioneering period aspirants and political party candidates for various seats could use the office to strategise on how they could capture the votes of the larger Umoja (1, 2 and Innercore) area. The piece of land is now only visited by dogs, hundreds of birds and people who seek to find means of life support from the household castoffs.
The residents say even the area MCA, who they elected on an ODM party ticket, occasionally drives on the edges of the dumping site, at times through heaps of recoverable items women and a few men salvage from the filth for sale to recycling companies.
Kennedy is a roadside businessman in the area. He sells chapati and mandazi just about 30 metres away from the dumping site on which the now defunct office rests. Most of his customers are the people assorting the rubbish heap with the hope of finding valuables. He says during the campaigns, the place was very clear and clean. Hundreds of people, who could gather at the office, ended up having a bite from his kibanda.
“This place was very clean. Too many people could come here during the campaigns and I could sell to them. Big cars used to park outside the office last year during the campaigns but now things have changed. People don’t want to live near here because of the bad smell,” he says.
He says he recently approached the area MCA over the matter and was promised that the dump site concern would be addressed immediately.
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Every morning and in the evening, in their twenties, carts loaded with all sorts of garbage are drawn to the site and emptied on the stinking stack.
Anne lives on a two-bedroom apartment on whose feet the reeking compost lies. She moved here in May last year when “the place was not that bad.” Together with her two-year-old son, she finds it hard to get fresh air in the house as they have to keep doors and windows locked throughout to thwart smoke emanating from the dumpsite.
“When I moved here, I didn’t have challenges then because there wasn’t any smelling garbage. They burn it here mostly at night. Even when you have windows closed, the smoke wakes you up in the middle of the night,” says Anne as she points to the pile of dirt from her balcony.
She says the situation worsened a week ago when Nairobi County garbage collection equipment were deployed at the scene. The number of flies at her kitchen increased and kept her at cleaning. She had discussed with her neighbours how they had been relieved the menace thinking the garbage would be relocated probably to Dandora.
“The tracks were here and we thought we would get assistance. They simply turned the whole heap over and over again and lit part of it. The stench was intensified and it is still burning, you could think raw sewerage had been poured in your house,” she adds.
Believers shun church
Most of the apartments surrounding the place are occupied by members of the National Police Service. A number of the senior officers in at least six of the apartments prefer renting out the houses allocated to them to members of the public or their juniors,BT has established.
Charles Basey is a foreigner who has been contracted to safeguard the property of the adjacent church, Dominion Bible Faith Ministries since 2012. He says business people dealing in the garbage extracts have made it impossible to keep the environment clean. He says any engagements on the matter always lead to undesired confrontations by the laborers who spill the compost into the church compound.
Basey says their church has been filled by flies which together with the stench turn away church members. He admits that the church had committed to pray over the matter, but the situation only worsened.
“Most of the people here are contracted to assort the dirt and are paid for this. You cannot convince them that the garbage situation is getting out of control. They get paid for that, sleep, bathe, eat and work on in the compost,” says Mr Basey.
During services, they take time to chase the flies first but it does not take long before they return in their hundreds to patch on church instruments.
Waste collection firms
Occupants of the nearby apartments are charged at least Sh250 monthly for garbage collection. The private garbage collection companies then pick the packed domestic waste on Fridays and are then expected to pay a fee to the county government to facilitate the removal of the piled garbage.
The occupants however do not know where the collected trash is taken. One of the caretakers says the area is where most of the refuse collected is dumped including that from the adjacent houses. Once one rents a house, they are required to join the waste management scheme and are issued with four polythene bags in which they keep all the waste each month. Every week, tenants are expected to leave the waste outside their doors or at the gate for collection.
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“The waste collected from the apartments we manage is dumped here. It started off as a collection point and it was not as close to the houses as now. The uncollected waste accumulated and kept moving closer and closer. It is now all over into the houses but every time I raise the concern with the county council office, they say it will be removed in the following week,” says the caretaker. He fears he could lose his job should we name him.
County services
When the defunct Nairobi City council adopted a public/ private partnership plan to aid solid waste management, all was a glow for those who registered companies that could collect waste from estates. This has since changed as the process of getting the contract is a difficult task. Those who were initially contracted under the scheme and do not ‘relate well’ with county officials have their collected garbage left out.
An employee of one of the private companies, who goes round collecting waste from their clients, says their portion of the dirt is never removed from the compost. He says it is because owners of the trucks had not been paid for and just a few who pay have the rot occasionally removed.
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