FALSE: Kenya does not produce 3000 to 4000 tonnes of waste per day

July 19, 2024 Newsroom

Official estimates show that Kenya produces over 22,000 tonnes of waste per day.

This post on X (formerly Twitter) by the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Festus K. Ng’eno, purportedly explaining the status of waste production in Kenya is FALSE.

While acknowledging support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is helping the Ministry of Environment to promote circular models of environmentally sound solid waste management in the country’s urban areas, the PS, noted that “Kenya generates between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of waste per day.”

Maudhui House Fact-Check desk has examined this claim on Kenya’s waste generation as posted by the PS and found it to be FALSE.

A quick reference to Kenya’s National Sustainable Waste Management Policy of 2021, (Chapter One, sub-heading Situational Analysis; Page 1) an authority document domiciled at the Ministry of Environment where Ng’eno is the PS shows that Kenya was estimated to produce 22,000 tonnes of waste per day, based on an average per capita waste generation of 0.5 kilograms for a population of 45 million, totaling 8 million tonnes annually.

With significant population growth since 2021, the waste produced per day can only have increased significantly. This policy document notes that about 40% of Kenya’s waste is produced in urban zones.

This National Sustainable Waste Management Policy of 2021 document has also been published by the United Nations agency, the Food and Agriculture Authority (FAO), asserting that the average waste generated in Kenya is at least 22,000 tonnes per day.

Additionally, an article published by the Kenya News Agency (KNA) on 31 August 2023 citing the National Sustainable Waste Management Policy of 2021, (Chapter One, sub-heading Situational Analysis; Page 1) also holds that Kenya’s average waste generation per day is on average 22,000 tonnes.

Maudhui House examined a post on X (formerly Twitter) by the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Dr. Eng. Festus K. Ng’eno, purportedly on the status of waste production in Kenya and found it to be FALSE.

This fact-check was published by Maudhui House with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.