I’ve written about the pollution caused by poor waste management and garbage burning before. That was spurred by an organisation I live near that burnt all kinds of stuff (dry leaves, carton boxes, and sometimes industrial waste I’m sure) everyday! I was sick of having to keep my windows shut all the time, so I called them one day and reminded them that it was illegal to burn garbage according to NEMA regulations. The person I spoke to claimed ignorance of any garbage burning within their compound, wanted to know how I knew of their (non-existent) burning, was I perhaps mistaken in thinking it was their compound burning garbage and not the next one, and eventually wanted to give me someone else’s phone number so I could talk to them about this issue. I refused, saying it wasn’t any of my business to talk to someone else, and that I just wanted to remind them that they shouldn’t be exposing everyone around them to fumes everyday. We exchanged phone numbers, and that was it. I wasn’t expecting much from the call, but…it worked! They have since stopped burning garbage. I’m not sure what’s happening to all of it now (I sincerely hope they’re using a garbage service that recycles and/or uses an incinerator and that I haven’t just demonstrated NIMBY behaviour), but there’s one fewer compound I have to worry about as a source of smoke.

I’m surprised that all it took was a phone call! Had I known that before, I wouldn’t have spent weeks psyching myself up to call them, arming myself with facts and preparing responses to imagined questions, not to mention how to put pressure on them (social media? legal notice?) should the call fail to do anything :) Now that I know it can be as simple as making a phone call, I feel unleashed, looking for other opportunities to get organisations, as a start, in Kisumu to do better!

That said, I was somewhat ashamed of myself at one point during the call - The person on the phone wanted to know my phone number (I was passed through to them via the receptionist), and the first thought that came to my mind was “Am I putting myself in danger by sharing my phone number?”. Thanks to mpesa, it’s easy to look up anyone’s full name if you have their Kenyan phone number. Would the organisation find it easier or more cost-effective to shut me up than to deal with the daily garbage burning? I went ahead and gave them my phone number, but I had to remind myself that if it comes to it, I have the resources to deal with any problems the organisation might try to create for me. Made me think of environmentalists who risk their lives to wage year-long campaigns against mining giants and illegal loggers - If a simple thing like calling someone out on garbage burning can make me feel at risk of harm (it’s hard to say if that was paranoia or a legitimate threat), the folks fighting the real battles must be constantly aware of the danger they’re in and yet find a way to put their fears aside and continue to do the work they do ♥

Kisumu is undergoing a major transformation - Preparing to host the Africities summit in November 2021 April 2022, the county government has been setting up public infrastructure, building footpaths (with rumours of bike paths! 😍), the construction of a new market complex (although the demolition of open-air markets before the launch of the new market has not gone down well with small-scale traders already hit hard by COVID) and even the revival of a colonial-era railway line. I’m excited to see what the city will look like later this year!

The air pollution problem

Kisumu’s air quality has gone completely unnoticed in this effort to “upgrade” the city. As I write this, Kisumu’s air quality index is hovering at 99, considered poor in most parts of the world. I wish I had known when I was moving into an apartment building that with the nice views of the hills in the distance, I’d also have to deal with the noxious fumes of burning garbage from nearby compounds burning dry leaves, or a few days’ worth of food, plastic and other waste. Running to the windows and closing them shut at the first whiff of burning garbage has become an unfortunate necessity. I’ve noticed I wake up with a sore throat or stuffy nose if I leave the bedroom window open all night.

Burning is the predominant form of waste management in Kenya, and notwithstanding National Environment Management Authority’s claim that burning of waste must be undertaken in a licenced incinerator, dumping garbage in a heap (either in a designated corner within one’s own compound or in a public field) and setting fire to it is a common sight in the evenings (Not wanting to breathe in the fumes is my current excuse for giving up on running in the evenings). It’s not much better using a garbage collection service - The building uses one, and chatting with the garbage collector, I found out that the collected garbage does not undergo segregation of any kind and all of it is burnt (I have no reason to think he meant incinerated and not just burnt in an open field on the outskirts of town).

At a time when WHO estimates that 7 million people die every year due to air pollution, of which 1 million are from the African continent, it doesn’t seem to me like there’s a national conversation on air pollution. The adverse effects of ambient air pollution are well established, and I think Kisumu has a great opportunity to address the pollution issue as the city continues to grow.

Reality

According to the City of Kisumu’s own Kisumu Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (KISWaMP) strategy document (PDF), garbage collection rates are abysmal - In a city that produces 385 tons of waste every day, only 25% is effectively collected. The figures are worse for household waste - Only 3.1% of household waste is collected for garbage disposal. While the strategy document defines lofty goals for 2020 and 2030 including planning ahead for the growth of the city and decommissioning the Kachok dumpsite, its implementation is far from reality.

Here’s an idea

With a little financial help from international partners, I think Kisumu county could set up its own free citywide garbage collection service. On its own, or with the help of community based organisations and nonprofits, the county administration can widen access to proper garbage disposal to all parts of the city. The strategy document reveals willingness to use a disposal service and to learn segregation methods, which can be taught through community outreach programs.

Given that 65 - 70% of waste in Kisumu is estimated to be decomposable, organic materials, composting would significantly reduce the volume of garbage to be processed and transported to incinerators or landfills.

Why?

• Clean air, water and soil: Improvement in the air quality, and reduction in the pollutants in the water (due to open dumping in the lake) and leachates in the soil would lead to better health outcomes and a lower healthcare expenditure burden on the county government over time.
• Employment: 41% of people aged between 18 and 34 in Kisumu were unemployed, according to the 2019 census data. That was before COVID, so I can’t imagine how dire the situation must be nowadays (A few months ago, I saw about forty people queueing outside an office to apply for a security guard position!). Setting up a new waste management program, or supporting community based organisations in various estates/settlements of Kisumu could create hundreds of jobs!
• Fertilizer: Compost is a great fertilizer. Composting organic waste and selling the compost to farmers at a nominal rate and conducting programs to increase awareness of compost use would be a self-sustaining source of revenue for the county’s garbage collection service and hopefully lead to better yield for farmers?
• Aesthetically pleasing: Assuming improved access leads to a reduction in illegal dumping of waste in public fields, trenches and highways, Kisumu would be able to position itself as a clean, progressive city with a long-term vision.

I attended the “Hike for mental health” event organised by Western Kenya LBQT Feminist Forum today.

I didn’t know Kisumu had an active grassroots-led LGBTQ group! When I came across the event on their Facebook page announcing a hike in Kakamega forest followed by a “vent session”, I immediately reached out to them.

As a cis Indian man in Kisumu, I was a bit worried I would come across as an intruder at an event led by Kenyan women when I met the group at the pickup point, but everyone was welcoming and I felt comfortable pretty quickly. I talked to many folks as we hiked through the forest, falling back from the group as people started opening up about themselves. I’m so overwhelmed and touched by everyone’s openness and willingness to be vulnerable in the company of strangers - People spoke of taking in many queer people who were kicked out of their homes when their families found out that they were queer during COVID lockdown, even though they were financially stretched thin themselves, reaching out to willing pastors to encourage them to avoid preaching against homosexuality and alienating (or worse, vilifying) vulnerable individuals in their congregations, being accused of trying to “convert” a heterosexual adult and dragged to a police station (It breaks me to think of the violence they must have experienced at the hands of the police), the everyday brutality of verbal abuse from Internet strangers on social media for being unapologetically queer, and the desire to create a safe space, both physical and mental, and using hikes as a way to allow queer people to speak freely as the small group hopes to mobilise funds to rent a physical space for a safe space and LGBTQ wellness centre.

On a personal note, for as long as I remember, I have struggled with my mental state, experiencing anxiety attacks, extreme mood swings, and withdrawing from the world for weeks at a time. Early this year however, I finally met with a psychiatrist, received a diagnosis and have been on medication that has made me feel like I’ve unlocked what I imagine “others” must have enjoyed throughout their lives - a stable state of mind! In a way, it feels like I’ve spent this year in isolation, looking inward and building up my strength to engage with the world. I could not have come across Kisumu’s fledgling LGBTQ group at a better time - I feel ready to put my energy to use for causes that are important to me, and the prospect of joining and supporting people who have been able to do so much with limited resources makes me happy.

P.S: If you’re able to support the organisation financially or otherwise, please get in touch with the organisers through the contact information on the Facebook page.

I spent a couple of blissful months unaware of the happenings of the world, cut off from my muscle-memory visits to The Guardian, Hacker News, Google News and a dozen other websites as I wait for my code changes to build. When I first stopped reading the news, I thought I’d miss being out of the loop and “relapse” pretty quickly, but I managed to hold off for about three months. Towards the end of it, I dipped back every week or two, mostly to know how COVID was ravaging the world and whether I’d be allowed back into India (Has any other country ever shut down all international flights and refused entry to its own citizens?), just in case that became a necessity. I even managed to read more long-form articles (Thanks Aeon!) and books, since there was a surprisingly big chunk of free time that I would have otherwise filled with news.

All of that came crashing down with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last month, and the imminent US election. The anxiety of not knowing what was happening out there quickly exceeded the anxiety I felt when I tried to keep up with the news. I can’t think of a time when so much has hung in the balance of an election - The US is set to withdraw from the (non-binding!) Paris climate agreement in November, and those who wish to trample upon women’s rights are surely emboldened by the recent anti-choice declaration led by the US and of course, the coup de grâce, RBG’s replacement.

I’m really looking forward to cutting news out of my life again, but I cannot imagine skipping the news first thing in the morning for the next two weeks.

I struggled with last weekend’s news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

Even though I have nothing whatsoever to do with the US, I remember feeling grateful and wildly optimistic as I followed along RBG’s championing of same-sex marriage rights at the US Supreme Court in 2015. For better or worse, America (yet?) wields enormous influence over the rest of the world, and that verdict seemed to pave the way for a lot of queer activism around the world. India’s Supreme Court striking down a section of a British-era law in 2018 that criminalized homosexual activities seemed to be a continuation of that wave of progress.

Reading RBG’s powerful dissents have often been a reprieve in an otherwise bleak decade, especially when I was in Poland as the Polish government tried to pass a total ban on abortion. Sisyphean though they might have been given the conservative majority in the US Supreme Court in recent years, it was refreshing to know that there was still room in the world for well-reasoned counterarguments and respect for diversity.

I can’t help but wonder how devastating it must be to pass away knowing that everything you stood for, everything you worked towards for decades, was never at greater risk of being destroyed at the hands of totalitarians in all but name. Is that when you truly grasp that “every generation must fight the same battles again and again” and hope that you’ve nudged the needle of progress forward at least a little bit? I just read the progressive Kannada author U R Ananthamurthy’s ಹಿಂದುತ್ವ ಅಥವಾ ಹಿಂದ್ ಸ್ವರಾಜ್?, his final work before his death in 2014 that chronicles the secular or religious Indian identity that newly independent India had to choose between in the last century, and how that planted the seed for Hindu nationalism in present-day Indian society. Written at a time when Modi’s election-winning vision of an unabashedly Hindu nation found many takers, it reads like a breathless lament for the hard-fought progress that might soon be dismantled.

I know, I know that we’re making progress on a lot of fronts, even if that sometimes just means having conversations about things that might have gone unnoticed a few years ago, but when I hear of the death of someone as pivotal as RBG to social change in recent memory, I find myself thinking that the walls are closing in as the steady drumbeat of fascism’s march to power across the world gets louder, and can’t help but feel despondent.

I suppose all you can do is pick your battles, stay the course and hope that it makes a difference.

Thank you, Duchess of Krakenthorp