A dump site where he tries to make a living by picking and selling plastics. Poor and. I have to go to the dump site because we are poor. As it is i cant go to school because i cant afford the school this is cool. I used to try to go to school anyway but every time i was sent back home. I was told i have debt to pay so and so what choice do i have. While her son goes to collect waste maureen who is sick and cannot walk stays behind the single mother is age i. V. Positive and feels constantly weak despite medication. She says because of the stigma attached to the disease she and her son are treated like outlaws in their own community. I took when i was in a way there are times when im so desperate that i just start crying i ask myself what kind of life do i have you know that will there ever be a day when i will be sealed when ill be like everyone else. There are times when im angry. She says she is plagued by a guilty conscience for not being able to send her son to school and by fear for his safety. Its like the dumpsite has demons who ask for blood. There are days when there is just too much evil seriously you hear of people killing each other someone stabs someone else with a knife or killed someone with a bottle. Sometimes you also hear the trucks just reverse without paying attention and run someone over. To. Work when he goes off i can only pray to god to protect them and to look out for him because on the dump site many bad things happen. Ritchie says its every man for himself at the dump site hes scared of the older boys and men who try to steal the waste he has collected. Just yesterday he was attacked a traumatizing experience. For war a picture full circle plastic. Something told me i should hide it what youre going to middle when i came back for it i thought a guy called a take my son. I told him. No this is mine. Inside the truck. It was about 7 in the morning. I dont know if he was sent by the devil. He beat me up until 10 oclock that evening. I fly met a fear has taken hold on the dump site which the authorities declared full in 2001 which was supposed to be closed. Years ago. Its the capitals only official dump site and technically belongs to the local government but instead of government offices so the people here say gangs control the landfill. In a seemingly lawless zone they have established rules that everyone who wants to enter the dumpsite has to abide by. Theres a strict picking hierarchy and one has been a scavenger if the 60 is known as the valuable trash belongs to the gang leaders and those collecting for them. Since we know the rules of this place is for you you know if you want to work here you have to abide by them you should never pick from a truck you werent supposed to pick from you must wait for them to finish taking everything they want otherwise its just outright war. So long that truck is reserved for someone else and then youll be beaten up if you try and scavenge and that one you know who it belongs to its already owned but its not any of us scavengers have to follow the rules its also the Truck Drivers who bring in an estimated 850. 00 tons of waste here every day were told that they are charging illegal security and off loading fee of 5 to 7 dollars depending on how much trash they have to dump. For you to have you already paid your security fee when you come in thats when you paper everything at the gate. The gangs have the site overseen by a socalled dumb site loads we find one his willing to speak to us anonymously. Its the gangs that control the dumpsite we cannot just let anyone from outside come and pick the garbage. There was what we called the revolution overthrowing of the leadership of the dumpsite. The gangs fought each other it was many people against one another. Around 14 to 15 people died at that time. People fought with machetes they were slaughtering each other was a bad time. Those who took over are the ones who are controlling the dumpsite now but the current leadership is just waiting for a mutiny and another power struggle for control. The dumb side lord says its not the gangs running the damn site him make the big money its the people they are answer to the garbage cartels networks of private companies and subcontractors that secure the lucrative government contracts for Waste Management these contracts are known to be worth millions of dollars. There are the cartels powerful people. If you openly speak out about the dealings theyre involved in youre in danger. They all hide how they make their money but they own the government contracts. For anyone in kenya to get anything you have to pay more used to it even these contracts coming in return for kickbacks. That garbage is a lucrative business is no secret in kenya where one 3rd of citizens live below the poverty line. The governor of nairobi mikes on call and other senior officials have been accused of making irregular payments for Garbage Collection Services amounting to 3500000. 00 the ethics and n. D. Corruption commission has accused the governor himself of exempting large bribes. Since kenyon no forbids the commission from discussing cases which are before court we asked the head of the commission. To comment on corruption surrounding tend towards in general. It is a serious problem because it involves a lot of money it easier because it is the private companies that are doing business with government that quite a number of the encouraging this problem because what it involves big money some of the private companies are willing to part with big money and bribe the Public Office people can call you out. On. It because they are looking at a company. Deliberately. Says that bribery is not the only form that corruption takes off and the price of the job itself is deliberately inflated to be distant or supposed to cost 800. 00 metre shillings it is deliberately skewed to cost 1000000000 and silently the 200000000 hes been shared between some some government offices were involved in that and i want. The Government Department in charge of awarding the gobbets contracts declined to comment give us an intervening. Deep inside the dumpsite richie has been granted permission to pick small plastics to sell in return for filling one of the down side loads banks with the valuable trash. His own sack is not full yet he must keep going if he and his mother tonight. And theres only one of many people who have asked the government to step up and improve the livelihoods of the people and. The government should create jobs yes this is work but you find educated people working here they arent supposed to be here and what about our childrens story ive struggled to get my children educated ive endured this hardship so that they can go to school and then where do i find my child ending up back here. See that makes us sad to. Finally the bags full time to weigh the pickings of the day. By there is no other way for richie and his mother to make a living they havent given up hope yet. Youre in for richie to get an education to know that he has passed his exams and is now flying away that would be my joy. But not for him to spend his whole life at the dump site. Because that is no life. I only want to be a pilot nothing but a pilot. Thats what i want to be. The wheels of justice slow in kenya there is no saying how long it will take for corruption in the tendering system to end for the gangs to stop intimidating our obese poorest and for conditions at the dumb side to improve. Today ritchie has collected 5 kilograms of plastic hes going home with 75. 00 shillings thats less than one us dollar tomorrow he will be back. Winters in europes far north are beautiful and frigid. But what can you do what 34 degrees below celsius. Go for a swim. Sleep outdoors. Walk your dogs hand if all else fails. Hop up and down Northern Lights life turn. 15 w. Loser talk show. Strong opinions clear positions from international perspective. Every week as we get to the point on our current topic. Committed. To the point. They were forced into a nameless mass. Their bodies near jewels would. Fit plummeted an entire country into chaos and violence. This is the journey back into the history of slavery. I think will truly be making progress when we all accept the history of slavery as all of our history. Our documentary series slavery routes starts march 9th on t. W. Plague. This is the wus live from berlin india rolling out the red carpet for the u. S. 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