ABSTRACT

Kenya’s manufacturing and processing sector is among the key productive sectors identified for economic growth and development because of its immense potential for wealth, employment creation and poverty alleviation. Currently Kenya’s industrial sector is one of the largest in sub Saharan Africa, the sector is highly fragmented with more than 2,000 manufacturing enterprises. The presence of these industries has led to rise in e-waste due to changes in technology, wear and tear, and high rates of obsolescence of the electrical equipments. The country is also likely to experience an increase in e-waste there will be an upsurge of similar industries due to the formation county government as envisaged by the constitution of Kenya 2010, as the counties are all out to embrace industrial growth. The project explored how an integrated approach to e-waste management can be applied in industrial area, Nairobi County in order to address the problem of e-waste brought about by the presence of high number industries. The study included an analysis of the legal, policy and institutional framework governing e-waste management and general waste management. The study also sought to assess how e-waste is handled in manufacturing and processing industries in industrial area Nairobi as well as examining critical challenges constraining e-waste management in Industrial area, Nairobi County. One of the findings of the study was that there exist some legislative gaps to address and regulate e-waste in the country. It was established that the legal and institutional framework governing e-waste do not efficiently address the problem. The national policies do not directly address the problem of e-waste but solid waste in general, enforcement of the regulations on general waste management has proved to be a problem by NEMA as there is no substantive control in the sector. The ministry of environment and natural resources and e-waste handlers-WEEE also believe that the policies and regulations in the country do not sufficiently address the problem of ewaste in specific and that such policies should be reviewed. They observed that those relevant institutions that have the responsibility to manage wastes in the country lack adequate capacity to carry out there mandate; such bodies are not allocated enough funds from the central government. They also have limited personnel to carry out enforcement of the regulations. On environmental reporting which is a prerequisite for sustainable development, many of the respondents at the industry level admitted that there companies do not practice routine environmental reporting where both internal and external auditing on the state of the environment should be done. Routine environmental reporting is very important in realizing sustainability on matters of environmental management; it ensures disclosure of the state of the environment at given periods, which ensures industries comply with laws and regulation governing the sector. Some of the manufacturing and processing industries do not have health and safety measure in place in their organization. Most of the industries do not have procedures of e-waste handling in their organizations, these two issues are very critical when it comes to handling e-waste, there absence in industries means high vulnerability during the handling process. EMCA, 1999 provides for the integration of environmental concerns in national policies, plans, programmes and projects. In this regard, it provides for the formulation of National, Provincial and District Environment Action Plans every five years, there is therefore need to restructure the former provisional administration to fit in the new county government structure for this purpose. The study calls for urgent and comprehensive integrated framework, which will ensure functional systems and structures, are put in place for proper e-waste management hence reducing significantly the human and environmental impacts of poor e-waste handling by taking action to address gaps in policy and institutional framework governing the sector both at the national and county government. It also calls for manufacturing industries to put in place measures towards environmental compliance.