Dandora dumpsite turned to gun market as gangs take over - report

Sanyatti

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Dandora dumpsite turned to gun market as gangs take over - report
The gangs allowed to trade guns at site as long as they protect interests of private companies.

In Summary
• According to the report, firearms are hidden in waste transported to the area because rubbish is hard to physically check and there are no scanners at the toll station.
• The report reveals that the 'Boma Village', a settlement within the dumpsite has become a stock exchange for guns with police having no capacity to make any arrests.
The lack of police intervention has made the Dandora dumpsite an attractive location for storing contraband such as guns and drugs.

A report by the Global Initiative Against Transitional Organised Crime indicates that the site has become a big location where these goods exchange hands.

According to the report, firearms are hidden in waste transported to the area because rubbish is hard to physically check and there are no scanners at the toll station.
The report reveals that the 'Boma Village', a settlement within the dumpsite has become a stock exchange for guns with police having no capacity to make any arrests.

"The garbage isn’t screened. Police cannot hazard a swoop down on the village because they don't know what happens there," read part of the report seen by the Star.

According to the survey, In 2018, police attempted to ransack the said Boma Village in search of firearms but were repulsed in an exchange of fire with criminals.

There have been allegations that gangs are allowed to deal with guns at the dumpsite as long as they protect the interests of private waste-management companies allied to powerful people in the government.

According to the report, groups of waste pickers work at the dumpsite reclaiming metals and other materials to sell on, but the line between an informal subsistence economy and criminal organizations is blurred.

These waste-picking groups have also been implicated in violence at the dumpsite in addition to charging an illegal fee for entry into the site.

In October 2013, a youth was shot dead and his body hacked, doused in fuel and torched when gangs clashed over control of the dumpsite.

Reports indicate that police from a nearby station merely watched from a distance.

That same month another gang member was stabbed to death in a turf war In which gang members exchanged fire for almost five hours as officers from the nearby Kinyago Police Station looked on, afraid of intervening in case they were robbed of their guns.

Two people lost their lives in the turf war that followed.
In 2014, the then area MP James Gakuya claimed that gangs were causing insecurity and argued that the Dandora dumpsite be relocated, forcing the High Court to direct the National Environmental Management Authority to undertake an audit of the dumpsite.

However vested interests have made it impossible for the dumpsite to be relocated.

Police oversight was subsequently withdrawn from the dumpsite, which has become a no-go area for cops.

Interviewees told GI-TOC that the removal of the police presence has meant that the dumpsite has become more violent.

Clashes often break out for control of rubbish, in most cases between youth from Dandora and Korogocho, two neighbouring informal settlements.

The dumpsite is the only designated dump for the thousands of tonnes of rubbish produced daily in Nairobi.

The report indicates it has become the hub for criminal groups and corrupt figures who have infiltrated the waste-disposal sector at a number of levels, from household-rubbish collection to waste transport.

The site itself is in a sprawling 30-acre area located in the middle of an informal settlement that is home to thousands of people.

It has long been acknowledged as a dysfunctional and highly dangerous part of Nairobi’s municipal infrastructure.

Over the years, the site has seen Dandora become a hub for criminal groups and corrupt figures who operate in the city’s rubbish-collection industry.

The criminalization of Dandora follows both international trends and local factors attributed to the waste sector as a prime target for organized crime.

The waste-management sector is vulnerable to criminal exploitation because it can offer high-profit margins at low risk of getting caught for involvement in illegal activities, particularly as the main regulatory agencies involved in the sector are generally not part of the criminal justice system.

In 2018, the Star ran a story on how cartels had invaded the sector depriving the county millions of shillings in a day.

Attempts to regulate hazardous materials often create a breeding ground for cutting corners and exploiting legislative loopholes.
The various stages of processing waste from the collection from businesses and houses to the transport of waste and management of the dumpsites themselves all offer opportunities for criminal rent-seeking and territorial control, and for corruption in the management of municipal contracts awarded to companies.
City hall is said to be collecting only a portion of the city’s waste mostly from markets and factories.
According to the report, it has hired other ministries, state companies and private collectors to do the remainder on its behalf.
Unfortunately, the report indicates that these organizations then charge residents additional fees to collect their waste.
In some neighbourhoods, the house-to-house collection is controlled by the gangs who use violence to ensure that their services are contracted and paid for.

In cases where one refuses to pay, the gangs will pour raw sewage on their doorstep or rob their compound.

If one insists on refusing their services, they send people to threaten them.

The report further reveals that criminals also profit when the trucks come to the dumpsite to unload waste.

According to the report, about 100 trucks deposit waste at Dandora dumpsite every day, many owned by about 150 private-sector waste operators.

These operators are paid per truckload delivered to the dumpsite, as measured at the weighbridge.
However, according to interviews with a number of gang leaders, some of these trucks arrive empty but are still invoiced, while others are invoiced multiple times for a single load of rubbish.

The weighbridge is most times non-functional, yet trucks are paid for non-existent ‘clocking’ into the weighbridge.

To ensure corruption runs smoothly, members of dumpsite-based gangs are stationed at the weighbridge to look after the interests of their patrons.

According to the report, there is an intricate web of relationships stretching between City Hall and the dumpsite, connecting politicians, private waste companies and the gangs.

In interviews conducted by GI-TOC, the waste-management tender process is used to influence members of the county assembly to ensure their support for leading political figures.
Source:https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/big...ned-to-gun-market-as-gangs-take-over-report/?
 

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