From Dumpsites to Clean Air: Kenya’s Fight Against Open Burning

The Air We Breathe

At 6:30 a.m. in Nairobi’s Korogocho, Mary Wanjiku lights a fire to boil water for tea. Smoke from her jiko curls into the morning haze, joining fumes from nearby homes, a market stall torching refuse, and the far-off Dandora dumpsite, where flames flicker endlessly. Her son, Peter, coughs in his sleep – a familiar, wrenching sound. The clinic calls it asthma. Mary knows it flares up when the air thickens with smoke.

This is Kenya’s quiet crisis: open burning. A daily ritual born not of choice, but necessity. A silent threat that clings to lungs, seeps into soil, and clouds the sky. Yet this story is not only one of hardship – it is also a story of ingenuity, resilience, and communities rewriting the script of survival.

The Silent Threat of Open Fires

Open burning is the act of setting waste – plastics, food scraps, electronics, or crop residues – on fire in the open air, with no filters or protections in place. Each fire, no matter how small, releases a cocktail of dangerous pollutants: PM2.5 particles that invade the lungs, carbon monoxide, lead, dioxins, and other invisible toxins that devastate health and accelerate climate change.

Across Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, and towns in between, these fires are constant and close. They fuel respiratory illness, contaminate food and water sources, and darken the air we breathe. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution – open burning among its culprits – claims an estimated 20,000 lives prematurely each year in Kenya.

Yet behind each fire is a logic of necessity: waste that has nowhere to go, livelihoods eked out from scrap, traditions handed down, and systems stretched too thin.

Where the Smoke Rises

Open burning isn’t one problem – it’s many, layered and local:

• Household Fires in Informal Settlements
  In places like Mukuru, Kibera, and Githurai, city waste trucks seldom reach. Families like Mary’s resort to burning their trash. It’s not ignorance – it’s adaptation. The bitter smoke of burned plastic is the cost of clearing space in a system that’s left them behind.
• Dumpsite Fires
  Dandora and Kachok aren’t just landfills; they’re informal economies where waste is sorted, scavenged, and often set alight – either to reduce volume or uncover recyclables. Each blaze sends toxic plumes drifting into schools, homes, and lungs.
• E-Waste Burning
  In Gikomba’s market sprawl, 19-year-old Kevin burns discarded cables to extract copper. It earns him a few coins, but costs him clean air. Without protective gear, he inhales lead, mercury, and chemical-laced ash daily.
• Medical Waste Fires
  In under-resourced clinics and rural hospitals, gloves, syringes, and expired drugs are disposed of in open pits. Biological waste mingles with chemical toxins and rises unchecked into the air.
• Agricultural Burning
  In Western Kenya, sugarcane is burned before harvesting. In small farms, maize stalks and weeds are torched to prepare land. What’s routine for the field becomes a choking haze for nearby towns.

Each of these practices is tied to real constraints: gaps in infrastructure, poverty, lack of awareness, and institutional inertia. But across the country, something is shifting.

A New Path: Solutions Taking Root

Kenya is not waiting for change – it’s building it, one community at a time:

• Community-Led Waste Collection
  In Kisumu’s Manyatta, 22-year-old Brian and his youth group, Green Reclaimers, collect household waste door to door. They separate recyclables, compost organics, and divert plastics to formal recycling hubs. Where smoke once rose, jobs now grow.
• Composting and Biogas
  At Mombasa’s Kongowea Market, food waste once piled high. Today, it fuels biogas stoves in nearby schools and enriches farms as compost. No more stench, no more smoke – just clean energy and fertile soil.
• Safer Scrap Recovery
  In Kariobangi, Amina leads an informal recyclers’ co-op. With NGO training and basic tools, her team dismantles electronics without burning. The metals they recover are sold to certified buyers, and the air is cleaner for it.
• Upgrading Dumpsites
  Kisumu County has launched a pilot waste transfer station that separates organics, recyclables, and landfill material. Controlled landfilling and methane capture are replacing unregulated fires. The difference is already in the air.
• Cleaner Farming Methods
  In Bungoma, Esther and fellow farmers now use mulching and shredders – provided by the county – to manage crop residues. With no need for fire, yields have improved and the skies remain clear through the planting season.

These efforts are local, but their message is universal: clean air is possible when communities are empowered with knowledge, tools, and support.

What’s Next for Cleaner Air?

Ending open burning demands bold, coordinated action from every level of society:

• Invest in Infrastructure
  Counties must expand waste collection in underserved areas and invest in compost hubs, recycling stations, and biogas plants.
• Strengthen and Enforce Policy
  Air quality laws must be implemented with consistency, matched with incentives and education to encourage compliance.
• Raise Public Awareness
  Campaigns that explain the unseen harms of burning – and the benefits of alternatives – can shift behavior and demand.
• Support Local Innovators
  Grassroots leaders like Brian, Amina, and Esther need visibility, funding, and policy backing to scale their impact.
• Build Cross-Sector Partnerships
  Governments, civil society, and businesses must align efforts, as seen in successful pilots like Kisumu’s waste management program.

A Breath of Fresh Possibility

Now, picture a different morning in Korogocho. Mary’s waste is collected by a neighborhood crew. Her stove runs on biogas. Peter wakes up to birdsong, not coughing fits. In Gikomba, Kevin wears gloves, using pliers instead of fire. In Bungoma, Esther walks her farm under clear skies, her crops thriving.

The air we breathe reflects the choices we make – individually, collectively, nationally.

Kenya stands at a crossroads. One path leads to more fires, more sickness, and more damage. The other leads to cleaner cities, healthier lives, and a future built – not burned.

Let’s choose clean air. Let’s choose life. At Hewa Safi, we’re committed to monitoring, amplifying, and supporting air quality solutions across Kenya. Have a story to share, a project to spotlight, or an idea to grow? Contact us.