Life in the Dumpsite - Ndege's stint in Kericho County garbage of history,finds rough road yet.

 

Life in the Dumpsite - Ndege's stint in Kericho County garbage of history,finds rough road yet.

Kericho County garbage attendants pleads with county government to assist in improvisation of the landfill they earn their pay.Environmental plastics, boxes, glasses and other litter accumulations is a huge concern in the hearts of both county and national government. Kericho County is one of the notorious places in Kenya where waste management is derailed by the slow actions from the relevant authorities.

Kericho, Kenya – it is 12:00 noon on a cold, busy Monday in Kericho’s town suburb.

Douglas Ndege opens an inexpensive dirty carton where he keeps his clothes after work. His dumpsite stint started in the year 2003 when he became a street urchin in Kericho town.

All the way from Kisii County to Kericho county, family status being in the lowest socio-economic class poised him to halt his education and join the streets of Kericho while still a young boy.

Speaking to KNA on Monday 12th June, 2023 – Mr. Ndege told journalists that he spends his life working at the waste dumpsite for the past twenty years due to poverty which inflict stress to the family.

According to Mr. Ndege who is one of the garbage attendants, illness and poverty afflict communities and thus making him rely on earnings from waste collection in the landfill.

“If you look at dumpsite where trashes of any kind are disposed, you will note unequivocally that we are suffering here, we showed a daredevil attribute in working here not only for choice and preferences but due to pressure of poverty and sustaining families.” said Mr. Ndege.

Besides tea, coffee, sugarcane and timbers at large being Kericho's main economic income provider; other group of collective attendants in garbage heap of history in Kericho experience a widespread devastation.

Human safety is an indispensable component that everybody cannot do without. The louder outcry from the landfill attendants is poised on the conditions and type of this heap of history.

While other colleagues mint vast sum of money doing decent job - with Mr. Douglas and his band wagon, it looks totally different. Selling of the already collected and arranged wastes of plastic, metal, papers, glasses goes to the valuation of 1 kilogram of heap of glasses equals KES.20 and this is how they earn a living.

The Kericho County garbage heap of history. Photo by: Steve Were, The Savvy Journalist.

Life at this landfill is immensely challenged by the presence of other devices which cause harm to the workers, among them is syringes, nails, needles and other sharp materials which they fear of piercing, hurting and even inflicting injuries to them as Mr. Ndege mentioned.

“There are variety of waste in this garbage but we are only dealing in plastic, boxes, glasses and scrap which are being recycled in Mombasa and Nairobi factories. If you can see the already sorted wastes, we are only waiting for a truck to come for them and take them to Mombasa and Nairobi.” alluded Douglas.

Mr. Douglas further stated that, from the year when he made his debut in staying in town up to date, he has seen changes in the workplace; Kericho County Garbage Site which he joined in the year 2003 just after becoming a notable guttersnipe.

With the deteriorating shapes and nature of this dumpsite, attendants say that from the fear of diseases infection and harmful injuries from the syringes and needles, county government of Kericho has gone on mute and using a blunt weapon in promising them a better working place.

As reiterated by the attendants, they are asking the county government under the leadership of Governor Dr. Erick Mutai Kipkoech to help the get new and improvised overalls, helmets, gloves and forked jembes for making their work more reliable and viable.

Through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), every part of environment deserves reliable and distinguished surroundings, Kericho dumpsite is of no exception. Poverty and illness afflict community since Douglas is now affording his livelihood in the dumpsite.

Through the incorporation of both crude and refined guts of unearthing coverts and public interests, Kenya Organization for Environmental Organization (KOEE) recognizes education, training and capacity building as a major avenue for meeting the skill demands of sustainable business and the green economy.

 

 

This is the capture of landfill operations, people have assembled packages of glass,box, plastic, scrap metal for transportation  Photo courtesy 📸 Steve Were The Savvy Journalist.