The Environment and Land Court at Milimani has awarded 1,032 waste pickers working at the Dandora dumpsite Ksh.25.8 million in damages after finding that their constitutional rights were violated due to prolonged exposure to air pollution.
The judgment was delivered on Wednesday, Justice Anne Omollo ruled in favour of the waste pickers against the Nairobi County Government and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)
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 and remains 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 judgement, Justice Omollo found that the county government had breached several fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution by failing to effectively manage waste and mitigating pollution. The court awarded each of the 1,032 waste pickers Ksh.25,000, as compensation bringing the total damages payable by the Nairobi County Government to Ksh.25,800,000.
