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Air Pollution: Kenya

by Yvonne Wabai | 01-05-2019 04:13


Air pollution is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. It can be outdoor (ambient) or indoor. Outdoor air pollution causes more than 3 million premature deaths globally each year and increases the risk of respiratory diseases and cardiovascular conditions while indoor air pollution causes 4.3 million premature deaths globally each globally each year. 

Data on air pollution in Kenya ia very scarce and particulate data is available only for the city of Nairobi. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that the level of fine particulate matter in the city¡¯s outdoor air is 17 µg/m3, 70%
 above the recommended maximum level. WHO's database on Nairobi goes as far back as 2009. According to this data, more than 18,000 premature deaths in Kenya every year are due to air pollution. 

Kenya lacks real-time, sufficient, and publicly accessible air quality monitoring networks. Data usually comes from private and multilateral institutions like UNEP. 

Major sources of population are population growth and urbanization. These can be broken down into: traffic, waste, road dust, industry, and solid fuels. According to the World Bank, more than 80% of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa use solid fuels such as wood and charcoal for cooking. Almost half of the 7 million people who died from air pollution worldwide in 2016 were due to inhaling smoke from biomass-fuelled cookstoves like those used widely in Kenya and many African countries.
 

Going forward, Kenya needs to monitor air pollution in real-time. It also needs to come with effective policies to reduce the sources of air pollution.