At the Kisumu County hospital, a heavy cloud of smoke bellows.
At the furthest corner, the red-hot flames cast a blanket of heat around the incinerator.

A designated worker occasionally opens the door to feed in coloured bags of trash collected from the hospital.
Incineration has been the primary method of medical waste disposal in Kenya. While effective at killing pathogens, traditional incineration has been flagged for releasing greenhouse gases and microplastics into the atmosphere.

At eight in the morning in Dagoretti, whilst lessons begin at nearby schools and teachers call out names from class registers, a different routine unfolds behind a row of shops near the main road.

Nine boys, all of school-going age, are gathered at an informal scrap metal yard, bending over piles of burnt electric wires, twisted iron sheets and broken electronics. None of them are in school.

Somalia is set to strengthen its environmental protections as it nears ratification of the Bamako Convention, a key treaty aimed at keeping hazardous waste out of Africa.

Bushra Ahmed Abdi, senior advisor to the Somali Ambassador on UNON, UNEP, and UN-HABITAT, delivered the statement, emphasising the urgent need to protect human life and the environment.

She stressed that the discussions were about more than policy.

Case Study on Somali implementation of the Bamako Convention

Case Study on Rwanda implementation of the Bamako Convention

Status under the Convention
Kenya signed the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa on 29 January 1991 and ratified it on 1 May 1996. Ratification created binding obligations to prohibit the import of hazardous and radioactive waste, regulate hazardous waste generated domestically, designate national competent authorities and focal points, and report to the Convention Secretariat to enable regional oversight and compliance review.