Court Orders Nairobi County to Pay Ksh 25.8M to Dandora Waste Pickers

The High Court has ordered the County Government of Nairobi to pay Ksh 25.8 million to 1,032 waste pickers working at the Dandora dumpsite for the violation of their rights.

Sitting at the Environment and Land Court at Milimani, Nairobi, Justice Anne Omollo directed the petitioners, who are waste pickers, to be awarded Ksh 25,000 each due to the prolonged exposure to air pollution.

“I hereby enter the judgment in favour of the petitioners against Nairobi County Government and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), where each petitioner will be awarded Ksh 25,000. A stay of the execution of the judgment is granted for 30 days,” the judge ruled.

The plaintiffs have sought an award of Ksh 500,000 each of the 1,032 waste pickers, which totals Ksh 516 million. Justice Omollo indicated that “Guided by the principles articulated by the Supreme Court and comparative jurisprudence, and taking into the account the duration of exposure, the vulnerability of the affected group, and the nature of the establishment violation, the court finds that a sum of Ksh 25,000 is warranted.”

The petition was filed by five waste pickers and instituted a class action suit on September 19, 2023, on behalf of 1,032 waste pickers, alleging that unchecked air pollution at the dumpsite had exposed them to serious health risks and degraded their living conditions.

The plaintiffs, through their lawyer Ken Amondi and Company Advocates, argued that the waste pickers form the “backbone” of recycling in the city, yet are completely excluded from policy decision-making.

The dumpsite was declared full in 2001 and continues to receive over 2,000 tonnes of waste daily, remaining a critical yet dangerous source of livelihood for thousands of Nairobi’s urban poor.

The court documents further detailed the public health emergency, citing that the plaintiffs sort waste manually without protective gear and that the county’s failure to manage the 47-hectare site has exposed them to deadly toxins, leading to reproductive harm, cancers, and neurological damage.

In the judgment, Justice Omollo found that the county government had breached several fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution by failing to effectively manage waste and mitigate pollution.

The judgment was stayed for 30 days before it was executed.