Zoomlion Kenya Scales Up Waste-to-Value Drive as Safisha Kanairo Enters Second Edition

Zoomlion Kenya Scales Up Waste-to-Value Drive as Safisha Kanairo Enters Second Edition

Nairobi is stepping up its war against garbage with a new approach that seeks not only to remove waste from streets and illegal dumpsites, but also to turn it into an economic resource.

Under the second edition of the Safisha Kanairo campaign, Zoomlion Kenya, in partnership with the Nairobi City County Government, is undertaking large-scale waste evacuation, dumpsite restoration and community interventions across the capital.

The initiative comes as the county intensifies waste collection across its 17 sub-counties, targeting accumulated and legacy waste that has for years posed health, environmental and economic challenges to residents.

At Korogocho Market, one of the areas targeted by the cleanup programme, traders have watched large quantities of waste disappear from a site where garbage had previously remained for months.

Much of the waste generated at the market is organic, produced daily by traders and residents. Its prolonged accumulation had turned the busy commercial centre into a sanitation challenge.

For trader Virginia Warau, the regular evacuation of waste is already changing the environment.

The cleanup is part of a wider Public-Private Partnership between Nairobi County and Zoomlion Kenya to clear identified illegal dumping sites and reclaim public spaces across the city.

David Kirui, Secretary of the Korogocho Market Traders Association, says a cleaner trading environment is also good for business.

Previously, traders paid about Sh200 to have their waste collected, he says. Under the current arrangement, collection has become cheaper and more regular, while improved cleanliness has encouraged customers to return to the market.

“The cleanliness of the market affects business. When the environment is better, customers are more comfortable coming here,” Kirui says.

From garbage to a resource

The waste removed from the targeted sites is currently transported to the Dandora dumpsite. But Zoomlion Kenya says the long-term plan is to reduce reliance on dumping through waste sorting, recycling and value addition.

A Waste Recycling and Value-Addition plant under construction in Ruai is expected to provide a major boost to the plan once operational.

The proposed facility will sort collected waste and process organic material into compost and fertiliser, potentially creating more affordable agricultural inputs for farmers.

Plastic waste, meanwhile, is expected to be converted into pellets for manufacturing products such as household waste bins.

The approach is designed to encourage waste separation at source while creating an economic market around materials that are currently treated largely as rubbish.

Ruaraka Sub-County Environment Officer Evans Ochieng says the partnership has already helped close five illegal dumping sites in the area.

Zoomlion Kenya Operations Manager Laud Mike Tagoe says the programme is intended to move Nairobi away from a cycle in which garbage is repeatedly removed only to return to the same locations.

The company says its experience in Ghana provides a model that could eventually be replicated in other counties.

Engineering the transformation of Dandora

The campaign has also taken a major focus to the sprawling Dandora dumpsite, where Zoomlion Kenya is undertaking restoration and engineering works aimed at transforming the site.

On August 25, 2026, the company also carried out emergency evacuations in flood-prone sections of Korogocho Slums, clearing obstructed waterways and helping protect vulnerable families from the effects of flooding.

At Dandora, Zoomlion has established an on-site container office overlooking the dumpsite to strengthen supervision of the restoration project.

The facility provides an operational base from which managers and engineers can monitor compaction, re-engineering and capping works.

Heavy compaction is already being undertaken at the site, with the company reporting a reduction in the severe foul odours that have historically affected neighbouring communities.

Under the PPP arrangement, Zoomlion says the broader objective is to achieve ecological transformation of the dumpsite within two years.

The scale of the undertaking is significant. Beyond removing visible waste, the restoration effort is aimed at changing the physical and environmental condition of a site that has long been associated with pollution, uncontrolled dumping and public health concerns.

Wangu School at the centre of the community response

Just next to the Dandora dumpsite, the Safisha Kanairo campaign is also extending its focus beyond waste itself to communities living and working alongside the site.

Wangu Comprehensive Primary School has for years faced environmental challenges associated with its proximity to the dumpsite, including toxic fumes, uncontrolled garbage burning and safety hazards.

As part of the second edition of Safisha Kanairo, an executive delegation from Zoomlion Kenya and the company's Ghana headquarters visited the school to assess environmental health concerns and community needs.

The delegation was led by Zoomlion Kenya Head of Communication Daisy Chelangat and was received by the school's headteacher, Wachira Kagunya, who guided the team through the institution.

The visit underlines a central element of the campaign: that restoring Dandora cannot be limited to the dumpsite itself.

For children attending a school located next to one of Nairobi's most notorious waste sites, improvements in the surrounding environment could have a direct bearing on the quality and safety of their learning environment.

Keeping the gains

County officials and Zoomlion Kenya acknowledge that evacuating accumulated garbage is only the beginning.

Without sustained collection and proper disposal, cleared sites risk becoming illegal dumping grounds again.

The partners therefore plan to introduce skip containers, roll-on/roll-off containers and transfer stations at cleared locations to prevent the return of uncontrolled dumping and improve waste collection.

The strategy is intended to create a more permanent waste-management system in which residents, traders, businesses, waste handlers and government agencies share responsibility for maintaining clean spaces.

At the heart of the initiative is a shift in how Nairobi views waste.

Rather than treating garbage solely as an environmental burden, the partners want waste to become a source of fertiliser, recyclable materials, manufactured products and employment.

If the planned Ruai facility delivers on its promise, material that would otherwise end up in Dandora could find a second life as agricultural inputs or recycled products.

For communities such as Korogocho and Dandora, however, the transformation begins with a more immediate need: cleaner neighbourhoods, safer public spaces and an environment where residents can live, traders can conduct business and children can learn without the burden of years of accumulated waste.

The second edition of Safisha Kanairo is therefore positioning Nairobi's waste challenge not simply as a sanitation problem, but as an opportunity to build a cleaner city and a circular economy around the waste it generates.