Local gangs run the Dandora dump site in Nairobi and terrorize garbage collectors.

Richie is only 12, but already he is his family’s main breadwinner. He collects garbage at the Dandora dump site in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. It’s a dangerous job, not least because the dump – one of the largest in Africa – is ruled by local gangs.

Local gangs run the Dandora dump in Nairobi, but they answer to garbage cartels – networks of private companies competing for lucrative state contracts and not afraid of paying bribes to land them. Currently, the governor and other high-ranking city hall officials are embroiled in a garbage-related scandal that Kenya’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating. On the dump site itself, there is a climate of fear. Threats and beatings are not infrequent. Richie has learned to live with it; he says he has no alternative. Melanie Cura Daball reports.

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