From a Waste Cemetery to a Waste Hospital: Recreating Kisumu City’s Waste Management System

Background: With the new constitutional dispensation in Kenya, counties, cities and towns are creating and recreating their solid waste management systems. Taking Kisumu as a case, this study assesses the existing solid waste management system and how best to recreate it while giving special emphasis to its system configuration, governance framework and waste economy. Methods: Data was collected through group discussions, in depth interviews, document reviews, observations, and a city wide survey of solid waste generation and management. Results were analysed through content and critical analyses and descriptive statistics. Results and Conclusion: The existing configuration does not ensure service delivery to all while the governance framework is not up to the task at hand. Furthermore, the City’s waste economy fails to capture a number of waste resources but loses them to Kachok dumpsite as wastes. Recommendation: First, to better recreate the City’s solid waste management system, its configuration should be designed to ensure service delivery to all. Then its governance framework and waste economy be recreated to seamlessly and sustainably fit this configuration. Moreover, in order to increase the recovery of value from wastes, sorting at source and return funds should be engrained in the system. Additionally, the involvement of resident associations will help improve governance at the residential level. Finally, for all systems, processes, and facilities, performance standards, regular monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should be established and enforced.