Lead exposure from E-waste: A case study of Dandora Dumpsite-Nairobi, Kenya

Author: Charity Ndanu Mbalu

March 12, 2026

A man from the slum of Korogocho, Kenya hefts his last bag of trash for the day in the hopes of selling the mostly rubber scraps for $0.50 USD. [Image credit: Michael Albert, 2012]

What is Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste (E-waste) is a growing concern in the world. Global e-waste rose from 53.6 million tonnes in 2019 to 62 million in 2022, with the UN predicting it will reach 82 million tonnes by 2030. Out of this, 5.1 million tonnes shipped across borders, 65%  was shipped from high to middle and low-income countries. This was done through uncontrolled and undocumented transboundary movement. However, 96.4% of the resulting e-waste is unmanaged or uncontrolled, which goes against the Basel Convention. This is due to weak monitoring systems, poor customs reporting, and limited waste management capacity which make it difficult to track these imports properly. As a result, Africa’s e-waste problem continues to grow over time: in 2022, of the 9 billion kg of e-waste generated and collected in Africa, only 0.7% of this waste is recorded as collected and recycled. In 2021, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) recorded East Africa as having generated 170 million kg of e-waste.

Kenya’s E-waste Burden

As per the global e-waste monitoring report in 2022, Kenya’s Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) put on the market() totaled 156 kilotonnes (kt) from other countries, and a further 88kt in e-waste generated by the local market. 53,559 metric tons of this e-waste were collected in 2024. National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) reports 5% of Kenya’s e-waste is formally recycled, while 95% is unmanaged, making its way into landfills and dumpsites such as the Dandora dumpsite. This leads the communities around the fills who are handling the waste to be exposed to unsafe practices that raise public concerns. These actions lead to the rise of informal recycling to extract valuable minerals such as gold, silver, copper, and aluminium. 

A situational analysis done by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated the current e-waste generated annually in Kenya at 11,400 tonnes from refrigerators, 2,800 tonnes from TVs, 2,500 tonnes from personal computers, 500 tonnes from printers, and 150 tonnes from mobile phones. These amounts have clearly increased over time since these totals were last updated in 2010. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these electronics have at least one or more of the components linked to lead as a hazardous material present. The global lead ratio in e-waste is 0.113%, making the estimated lead from e-waste in Kenya 60,000 kgs.

Dandora is home to the largest solid waste dumpsite in Kenya. 295,5670 people live around the dumpsite, with the majority living within close proximity of 200 metres - 10 km. In total, Dandora’s population and its nearby slum dwellers total 1,000,000 people. The Dandora dumpsite receives 2,000 metric tonnes of solid waste daily from the city's 4.5 million residences in Nairobi. Everyday more than 3,000 waste pickers work in the Dandora dumpsite despite the dumpsite being decommissioned and noted as full by the National County Government in 2001. Out of the solid waste deposited, 62% of this is organic waste. The rest is inorganics, such as e-waste.

“The government's role usually ends at the weigh bridge where the government garbage trucks dump the trash and leave after collecting ‘tax.’ After that, there are ‘garbage millionaires’ who usually are men that run the areas for picking out different categories of trash. The categories vary from plastic to valuable waste (electronic waste).” 

-- Social Worker Esbon Kariuki Working with Communities within the Dandora Landfill, Key Informant Interview, 14/01/2026

Children at the Center of Exposure

Lead exposure is a severe public health crisis that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, particularly children under the age of six. The WHO discusses that dangerous levels of lead exposure in children are achieved 4-5 times faster than in adults. Globally, lead poisoning causes an estimated 1 million deaths annually, with 92% of these occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The effects of lead exposure in children are particularly devastating, often resulting in irreversible developmental damage, including learning difficulties, attention disorders, behavioral issues, and anemia due to interference with iron absorption.

The WHO reports that children in e-waste dumpsites have been noted to partake in informal e-waste recycling activities, such as the open burning of plastic wires to extract copper, bathing computer chips in acid to extract gold, and the manual dismantling of cathode ray tubes to extract small quantities of valuable materials. All of these activities, as per the WHO, have been linked to the release of toxic chemicals such as lead. 

The Dandora dumpsite and its environs are noted to be at high risk for lead exposure from the soil, water, and air. This can be through inhalation, ingestion, transplacental exposure, or through skin contact. Children are exposed to lead through activities such as working in the dumpsite or accompanying their parents to the dumpsite.

Gender, Labor, and Survival

”Men are usually seen to run this, ‘trash cartels.’ Women usually work for the men and are exploited. Women usually are paid 150kshs per day for all the work they have done compared to the sale price of 500kshs per kg. Women are usually beaten and their day’s work taken away by other men working in the landfill.”

-- Social Worker Esbon Kariuki Working with Communities within the Dandora Landfill, Key Informant Interview, 14/01/2026

The International Labor Organization (ILO) predicts that the number of jobs in waste management will increase by 40 million in 2030. The number of jobs is predicted to rise by 70% with the expected rise in e-waste and e-waste pickers. Women take up 23% of informal sector jobs, including informal waste management jobs at the lowest levels of picking and separating in landfills. Kenya’s informal job sector employs 83% of the population. 60 % of waste pickers in Nairobi are women. 

In Nairobi, a study recorded that a majority of female waste pickers are also child bearers, with 51.9% of them having been pregnant while still working at the dumpsite. Many continue working at these locations even after delivery. They bring their infant children to toxic dumpsites to continue earning a living. In another research study conducted in Dandora on new mothers, the mothers’ blood levels were in the range of 27.15 ± 14.75µg/dL compared to the acceptable level of below 5 μg/dL.

"Women usually go back to work a day or two immediately after childbirth to earn a living in the landfills. They often leave their children with their other children of school-going age to take care of them (13-17 years). The moment the children are of age (13-17 years), they are expected to fend for themselves; as a result, they drop out of school and start working the gate at the landfills. Despite the government's feeding program, where the learners have to pay 100-110kshs per month, these communities cannot afford this. Our daily school feeding program feeds more than 700 children a day; this two meals a day keeps them in school. In our monthly feeding programme around 30 men are fed, women do not take part of the program since many of them eat from the house before they arrive at the landfills.” 

-- Social Worker Esbon Kariuki Working with Communities within the Dandora Landfill, Key Informant Interview, 14/01/2026)

Women who make up the majority of landfill workers are often at the lowest level of the waste management hierarchy. Women expose their children, impacting their neonatal development, hormonal levels, and immune function. Waste pickers typically do not use or are unaware of the importance of protective wear when handling or disposing of waste. Due to this lack of protective gear, 77% of the waste pickers in Dandora have linked illnesses from exposure to dumpsite toxins. Those who were aware of the benefits of protective gear did not have access to personal protective equipment (PPE). Gloves and masks are too expensive compared to their average daily income. It was noted that when the waste workers could use PPE, it would prevent exposure through the skin, nose, and eyes. It also prevents the risk of carrying these contaminants home to their families. 

Lead Exposure and Its Contaminants

”Children in the landfills, especially in Korogocho and Boma, often swim and wash in the river. They usually have skin conditions, seen by the rashes on their skin. The health centers usually are aware and give ointments for the conditions. Many children and women, both living and working in these areas, usually have chest and breathing problems. They usually say it is from burning of this waste, such as batteries.” 

-- Social Worker Esbon Kariuki Working with Communities within the Dandora Landfill, Key Informant Interview, 14/01/2026

Lead in the soil at the Dandora dumpsite is recorded to be 4498 ppm. This is compared to the acceptable level in play areas of 400 ppm. 25-30% of all children surrounding the Dandora dumpsite have pica, which results from dangerous levels of lead being ingested. Children absorb 40-50% of ingested lead compared to the 5-10% adults absorb due to pica and from touching their hands to their mouths. Putting soil in your mouth is a normal behavior of small children. They usually stop doing it through instruction by adults. Children with a lower economic status, who may spend more time on their own since their parents work so much, may not receive this instruction as early or as frequently. It is an overlooked area of lead poisoning.

Commonly used water sources are wells and boreholes. Water collected from these kinds of sites contains 0.746ppm lead above the allowable amounts. There are few sites in Dandora where the water was detected to have below detectable levels (BDL) of lead. The rest of the sites had lead detected up to 7.62±0.62 ppm. This was dependent on whether tests were done during rainy or dry seasons. Runoff water was noted to have lower levels of lead. Recent research done in Dandora showed that even borehole water in the area contained more lead (0.75ppm) than the recommended levels. 

Lead fumes are generated in the used lead-acid battery (U-LAB) recycling industries and metal work industries in Nairobi. Lead fumes have been linked to lead in food, water, and soil in the areas surrounding these facilities. Studies in Kariobangi and Dandora show how lead makes its way into residential areas and playgrounds. Contaminated dust leads to greater levels of lead inhalation in these areas. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidance allows for lead on floors with a range of 65.2 – 58,194 µg/ft. These levels are exceeded around these facilities. 

A study done in Dandora, Kariobangi, and Mukuru in residential, playground, and school areas using the integrated exposure uptake biokinetic (IEUBK) model showed that 70.7% of the soil samples in these areas exceeded the USEPA guidelines. The studies predicted that 99.9% of children ≤ 7 years old in these areas had lead poisoning above the predicted blood lead levels. This was especially true for the ones living near U-LAB informal recycling operations. This is compared to the control group samples. 100% of the samples from the control group were below the respective USEPA limits.

”Children are not allowed inside the gates of Dandora landfill. However, children around the ages of 13-17 years usually wait for the garbage trucks at the gate to quickly grab valuable waste. There are usually around 70-100 school-going children waiting at the gate for this daily task to earn some money. These children usually drop out of school due to low concentration. The area usually has many schools, but few children attend due to the foul smell from the landfill.” 

-- Social Worker Esbon Kariuki Working with Communities within the Dandora Landfill, Key Informant Interview, 14/01/2026

Table 1

Pregnancy, Early Harm, and Late Harm

Transplacental lead exposure has been linked to low birth weight, premature birth, increased chances of a stillbirth, and miscarriages. A majority of the community members who live in proximity to the Dandora dumpsite highlighted miscarriages as a major concern. Female waste pickers who lived further from the dumpsite reported only 11% having experienced miscarriages, premature births, and/or stillbirths.

The central nervous system is highly sensitive to lead exposure. The level of damage is dependent on lead speciation, doses, time, and age of exposure. Aside from these factors, many studies have also linked the metabolism of minerals, such as iron deficiency in children to be linked to environmental factors. Lead has been known to interfere with the blood-brain barrier, which separates blood from the brain and brain fluid. Lead has been known to bypass this barrier, leading to a reduction in visual motor reasoning skills, attention deficiency tendencies, and reduced cognitive ability. In children, it displays as lack of attention, lethargy, aggression, and/or hyperactivity. In the long term, lead exposure has also been linked to Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

Lead toxins have been linked to early childhood, teenage, and adult exposure to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, such as asthma and pneumonia. In waste pickers and communities living near the Dandora dumpsite, they also experience respiratory illnesses.

National Burden and Long-Term Cost

The World Bank estimates Kenya’s total loss of 6,693,597 Intelligence Quotient (IQ) points in children under the age of 5 due to lead exposure. This loss is costing the country an estimated 5,5209 million USD in 2019. Lead exposure leads to a rise in respiratory diseases such as asthma and pneumonia by 12%. In Kenya, this has been estimated to have caused deaths by cardiovascular diseases to rise to 22 out of every 100,000 persons. 

The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) discusses the total population of children under 10 years old in Kenya to be 10.3 million. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that over 5 million children have a blood lead level (BLL) of >5 to 10> μg/dL in Kenya. In 2020, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 9,000 – 11,000 disability adjusted years were lost from non-fatal cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease due to lead exposure in later life. This led to an estimated 104-128 million days of people living with illness unnecessarily. IHME further predicted the annual number of deaths caused by lead exposure to be 3,082 children. They estimated a rise in Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) from 39,419 in 2019 to 74,583 in 2021. 

Recommendations

Monitoring and reporting of blood testing must be done in collaboration with health centers for targeted health services and nutritional support. Governments should recommend the supplementary uptake of iron, vitamin C, and calcium to help limit lead absorption. At-risk communities, such as those surrounding e-waste disposal sites, recycling facilities, and handling facilities, must be made a priority in lead reduction efforts. This will ensure timely prevention and response, especially in children who are most affected. Community awareness campaigns and dietary supplements must be widely shared and provided at no cost. Campaigns must be targeted to pregnant women and children, especially those under the age of 7, who are most at risk in these areas. Studies have also shown that low-cost prevention measures such as caregiver education and professional house cleaning reduce the overall percentage of children with BLLs of >15 µg/dL or >20 µg/dL. 

Gender specific awareness is also seen as a key prevention of lead exposure in pregnant women and mothers who carry their children to the dumpsites. The government is encouraged to educate and provide free PPE, such as masks and gloves, to these communities. Households in low and middle-income countries must be a part of the solution. They need to be aware that they are often disposing of waste in others' homes when they dispose of electronics. Take-back schemes organized by producers of e-waste, such as Safaricom, should be widely shared as an alternative to these devices just being thrown away. Despite the availability of these programs, there is a lack of community incentive to participate in take-back schemes. Governments or corporations could incentivize take-back schemes by providing a token for returning e-waste that could be exchanged for a discount or rewards program.

In 2019, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) forum reported that 17.4% of e-waste was recycled. This totaled to metals such as gold, silver, platinum, amongst others, being collected to an amount totalling US $57 billion. Considering the country's GDP of US $100.38 billion in 2019, there is a need to incentivize not only corporate e-waste management, but also household consumers to return e-waste in Kenya. This will shift the burden of e-waste from the government to producer responsibility made mandatory by NEMA. The consumers have been incentivized to take back e-waste to producers. It will further engage communities to be aware of e-waste and how they handle it from a household perspective.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to predict exposure, prioritize prevention, and mitigate lead exposure. This could be especially effective in areas with multi-layered factors such as hydrological, environmental, topographic, socioeconomic, and infrastructure issues. Scientific Reports did a study in Washington, DC, to see if they could use AI to find the areas where lead exposure was highest. The model they used predicted that these targeted interventions could lead to a reduction in lead exposure of 1.72%. The measured value after implementing these changes was 1.73%. The accuracy rate for the model displaying the areas with the highest lead exposure rates was 99.42%. AI has proven to be useful by using predictive models to bring different types of information together to find hidden, overlooked socio-environmental inequalities and tricky patterns in lead exposure. These practices allow communities and governments to change from reaction to prevention in resource-constrained areas such as Dandora and its environs. In conclusion, recommendations include using AI-supported and human-based knowledge to ensure timely and quality-adjusted life for all those suffering from high lead exposure levels due to e-waste.

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Acronymns

1. BLL – Blood Lead Level

2. CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

3. CNS – Central Nervous System

4. DALYs – Disability-Adjusted Life Years

5. E-waste – Electronic Waste

6. EEE – Electrical and Electronic Equipment

7. EEE POM – Electrical and Electronic Equipment Put on the Market

8. FAAS – Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

9. GEM – Global E-waste Monitor

10. IEUBK Model – Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic Model

11. IHME – Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

12. ILO – International Labour Organization

13. IQ – Intelligence Quotient

14. ITU – International Telecommunication Union

15. NCPD – National Council for Population and Development (Kenya)

16. NEMA – National Environment Management Authority (Kenya)

17. OSHA – Occupational Safety and Health Administration

18. PEL – Permissible Exposure Limit

19. PPE – Personal Protective Equipment

20. U-LAB – Used Lead-Acid Battery

21. UN – United Nations

22. UNEP – United Nations Environment Programme

23. UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund

24. USEPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency

25. WEEE – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

26. WHO – World Health Organization

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Glossary

• Bioaccumulation – The gradual build-up of toxic substances like lead in the body over time.

• Blood Lead Level (BLL) – The amount of lead present in the blood, measured in micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL).

• Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) – An older display technology found in TVs and monitors that contains high levels of leaded glass.

• Central Nervous System – The brain and spinal cord, which control thinking, movement, and bodily functions. It is highly sensitive to lead exposure.

• Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) – A measure of overall disease burden combining years of life lost and years lived with disability.

• Electronic Waste (E-waste) – Discarded electrical or electronic devices, including phones, computers, TVs, and appliances.

• Exposure Pathways – Routes through which lead enters the body, including inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, and transplacental transfer.

• Informal Recycling – Unregulated recovery of valuable materials from waste using unsafe methods such as open burning or acid leaching.

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ) – A standardized score used to measure cognitive ability and intellectual functioning.

• Lead (Pb) – A toxic heavy metal commonly found in electronic components that poses serious health risks, especially to children.

• Lethargy – A state of extreme tiredness or lack of energy, often observed in lead-exposed children.

• Metabolism – The process by which the body absorbs, distributes, and processes nutrients and toxins.

• Pica – A behavioral condition involving the consumption of non-food items such as soil, increasing to lead ingestion risk.

• Soil Contamination – The presence of toxic substances in soil at levels harmful to human health.

• Transboundary Movement – Any movement of wastes from an area under the national jurisdiction of a Member country to an area under the national jurisdiction of another Member country.

• Transplacental Exposure – Transfer of toxic substances like lead from a pregnant mother to the fetus through the placenta.

• Used Lead-Acid Battery (U-LAB) – Batteries commonly recycled informally, releasing lead into the environment.

• Quality Adjusted life – A measure of years lived in perfect health, representing a gain in health rather than a loss, with both used in health economics to evaluate interventions.

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