In Summary
Residents in Fort Jesus, Kibera live next to informal dumpsites where waste is burned almost daily, exposing families to toxic smoke.
Youths like Boniface Magetto have developed lifelong respiratory complications believed to be linked to polluted air from burning
plastics and mixed waste.
Community initiative Mtaa Safi collects garbage using wheelbarrows and mikokoteni to reduce dumping and burning despite limited.

In Kibera slums, Nairobi County, the choking smoke from daily routine of burning plastics, wires, and mixed household waste has become an invisible enemy, shaping lives with chronic disease, hospital visits, and crushed dreams for hundreds of residents.

This comes at a time the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally about 7 million premature deaths each year are linked to combined outdoor and household air pollution causing heart disease, stroke, lung cancer among other respiratory infections.

In Kenya alone, research suggests more than 26,000 people die annually due to household air pollution, highlighting how deadly polluted air is for vulnerable communities especially in the informal settlements.

Living Next to Smoke is a Daily Struggle
For 22‑year‑old Boniface Magetto, life beside an informal dumpsite in Fort Jesus means waking up each day to toxic smoke filling the air.

Plastics, wires, and rotting garbage burn almost daily, and from a young age the fumes would make his chest tighten until he could barely breathe.

“I grew up breathing smoke from plastics, wires, and rotten garbage, and from the time I was a child my chest would tighten whenever the fumes filled the air. When I was taken to the hospital, the doctors told me I had asthma and I have lived with it ever since,” said Magetto.

Consequently, Boniface has been forced to always carry his inhaler everywhere.

“I always carry my inhaler because without it, I can collapse or become too weak to walk,”he
explains, describing how smoke from burning waste limits his ability to work, play football, or even join youth activities.

But the toll is not only physical; it’s emotional. “Some girls avoid me when they discover I use an inhaler, as if I am less of a person or too sick to be loved,’ he says.

Boniface believes he did not choose to grow up beside the hazardous waste, “but I am the one carrying the scars.”

His story reflects how pollution burdens young lives in Kibera, shaping health, confidence and the future of many residents as their concerns go unnoticed.

Community Response Mtaa Safi’s Fight Against Toxic Waste
In 2019, Denis Juma and fellow residents formed the Mtaa Safi initiative after watching garbage piles expand and smoke engulf the neighbourhood.

“We started this work in 2019 after seeing how garbage was piling up around places like Fort Jesus and how open dumping and burning was affecting people’s health,” said Juma.

With no formal funding and only wheelbarrows and mikokoteni, the group began collecting
waste from house‑to‑house, and clearing informal dumpsites that had become a mess as they overflowed the residence .

They also sort recyclable materials and begun educating residents about the risks of burning plastics and electronic waste.

“Even though we don’t have big machinery or formal funding, we believe our small efforts are saving lives and reducing exposure to dangerous waste,” Juma says

He revealed that, they also engage local leaders and environmental officers in solving the problem .

“Our dream is to see a cleaner and safer Kibera where young people do not grow up sick because of pollution. We are doing what we can, because this is our home and protecting it is our responsibility.”Their efforts highlight the difference community action can make even in the absence of formal services.

Doctors Link Illness to Air Quality
Healthcare workers in informal settlements such as Kibera are experiencing firsthand health consequences of polluted air. Dr. Justus Simba reports that upper respiratory infections are now consistently among the most common illnesses treated often linked to particulate matter inhalation.

“Among our top 10 diseases, the first one is upper respiratory infections. We are seeing averagely 3,000 patients per day, and about 60% of those people are presenting with breathing issues,” said Dr. Simba.

Dr. Simba notes that, children are especially vulnerable.

“In our paediatrics, the number goes up to 80%. Many present with breathing distress and asthma attacks,” he adds.

Doctors also have reported an increase in respiratory cancers, antibiotic‑resistant tuberculosis, premature deliveries and newborn respiratory distress conditions seen repeatedly among patients from neighbourhoods near
dumpsites.

“We are also getting quite a number of mothers delivering prematurely… because of the quality of air they are breathing,” Dr.Simba says, underscoring how polluted air harms both mothers and infants.

On the other hand, hospital staff are mapping high‑risk zones to better understand links between pollution exposure and disease, emphasizing the need for environmental monitoring to guide public health action.

Why This Matters Global and National Data on Air Pollution Deaths
Air pollution is not just a local concern it is a major global health crisis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the combined effects of outdoor (ambient) and household air pollution are associated with about 7 million premature deaths each year due to diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and acute respiratory infections. Of these, 4.2 million deaths were attributed to outdoor air pollution alone in 2019, with the majority occurring in low‑ and middle‑income countries where pollution levels are highest.

Closer to home, research from the NIHR CLEAN‑Air (Africa) Global Health Research Group estimates that more than 26,000 Kenyans die annually due to household air pollution, largely from the use of polluting fuels like charcoal and firewood practices still widespread in many households.

This data underscores that hazardous air pollution is not simply an environmental issue, but a grave health threat affecting millions of lives each year.

The experience in Kibera resonates with the Bamako Convention, a regional treaty designed to protect African communities from hazardous waste and toxic pollutants, and to promote sound waste management.

It emphasizes the prevention of exposure to hazardous substances and calls for environmentally safe disposal practices that protect human health a principle starkly relevant where daily waste burning contributes to disease and death.

The Convention’s guidelines also support stronger national policies and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that communities are not left vulnerable to harmful exposures from unmanaged waste, echoing the fight that residents and community groups are waging in Kibera.