By David Oduor and Thomas Sankara

Under the Muungano Wa Wanavijiji slogan ‘’ tujuane, tujengane’’ loosely translated to ‘’your network is your net worth,’’ a team of seven women from groups under Kisumu Waste Pickers Welfare Association [KIWAPWA] facilitated by SDI-KENYA visited Naivasha for two days learning exchange on solid waste management and networking on 23rd to 24th May 2024, the team was received by Byron Geogiadis, SDI-Kenya coordinator Nakuru.  Groups they scheduled for visit were; Waste to Best Environmental Action, Kayo Waste of Naivasha Women Federation and Kwa-Muhia Environment al Group [KMEG] all under Naivasha Grass root Action Waste Management [NAGAWAM].  

Day one: group and site visit.

Accompanied by Naivasha federation members led by Janesther, the Kisumu team were led to their first destination for learning and exchange at Waste To Best Environmental Action’s Guest inn community garden, here we welcomed by James Kagwe the group’s director who also double as NAGAWAM chairman who did not only gave the group’s history but also touched a bit on NAGAWAM. In his speech he stated that NAGAWAM is an umbrella body with 25 groups that are directly involved with waste management and its main aim is to form socio-economic solutions around problems related to waste aiming to zero waste society.

Speaking of his group Mr. kagwe highlighted the activities they do as a group, the activities include : waste collection and management which is the mother to other activities, demonstrating urban farming, waste segregation, community garden, composting and  tree nursery, on how they do waste he added that through Nakuru county public private partnership act, they registered their group as per the terms of the county, did a biding and were awarded a tender with a specific zone/area to cover, the group carry out waste collection Monday to Friday with men collecting waste from the household and women sorting the waste at the garden after collection. According to Mr. Kagwe, anything entering their garden as waste from the community are considered valuables, waste clothes, papers, boxes ,wigs, shoes among others are used as building materials for their taka-house, organic waste are composed and used for farming  both vegetables and tree nurseries, plastics and metals are sold to aggregators and diapers they have use to build children playing ground sort of bouncing castle at their Parma-culture garden in Gadhengera.

From Waste to Best the team was led to the second group Kayo Waste of the Naivasha women federation, we visited their resource recovery centre at Mararo, they too just like the first group do waste as per the terms of the county government. Speaking to us Ms. Janesther the group chairperson stated that the group is purely made of women and the key challenge they face is rejection and discrimination since waste business is viewed manly. In their centre they do sorting just like the first group, with them only majoring on plastics, metals, waste shoes and boxes as valuables dumping the rest to the dumpsite. She also added that in the women federation they do saving and loaning to uplift them financially and also to scratch a sister’s back.

From Mararo the team proceeded to Gadhengera Parma-culture garden an initiative of NAGAWAM aiming at zero waste community. Is at the garden where groups under NAGAWAM take their non recyclables for innovation, some of the innovation displayed at the garden are; the Taka-house built of waste materials such as waste clothes, boxes, wigs, waste shoes, glass bottles among others, another innovations are; ‘’bouncing castle’’ made of diapers and used tires, improving soil fertility by compost manure from waste and mixed farming. Apart from the innovations the farm is also full of indigenous vegetables, trees and fruits, also in the farm their medicinal trees and good environment for partying, camping, nature walk, meditation and studying. In the farm they also harvest water and trap silts which they use in agriculture, electric waste like computers and televisions are used as planting containers, the pavement of the walkways in the farm are beautified with vegetables rather than normal flowers.

Day two: KMEG, dumpsite visit and reflection sessions 

The second day started good, the weather was welcoming and the team were ready for the field work with only two destinations to visit. After a long drive of about 3o minutes we reached out first group that was Kw Muhia Environmental Group (KMEG) and were received by Julian Modi, after round of introduction she briefed us about the group and it’s activities. The group was as formed in 2014 to make Kwa Muhia and it’s environ clean, the group is known for recycling bottles both plastic and glass bottles, from plastic bottles they make mats and from glass bottles they make glass tumblers, chandaria and the remains are crushed and mixed with cement to make pavers . In this group too all the tasks are being done by women . 

From Kwa Muhia we drove to Naivasha dumping site in Kayole which we were told serves 80 wards of Naivasha and also Gilgil Sub county, the site is of about 11 acres and receives like 10-20 trucks in a day. In terms of management, the site is well managed and has 40 registered members working in it as off loaders and sorting under the leadership of Mr. Peter Kiriga who is the general in charge of the dumping site . 

After the field work, the group drove back to Kabati YMCA for a debrief with both the Nairobi team and Naivasha team to share experience and what each have learned from the groups visited . The exchange was closed by words of encouragement from Byron and Mr. Kagwe. 

Way forward and action steps 

Mr. Byron while addressing the joint team at the reflection sessions, insisted that all should not end with the exchange and challenged all to carry at least one project back home to implement and also teach those that were left behind (sharing, implementing of ideas and taking home new things)

He also urged the teams to work together and collaborate always with or without the aid of SDI-Kenya for if teams walk together, they will achieve better things faster than working alone . We were also challenged that waste is not ending today and we should improve on ways of managing the problem of waste and to always use every disadvantage as an advantage.

Some of the action steps shared were:

• Adapt Taka house in every network at least five units.

• Certificate courses on permaculture.

• Advocating for climate justice.

• More interaction and networking at group levels.