Dirty fuel: Burning sacks sucking life out of Korogocho residents

Mary Ndunge, Korogocho resident, prepares food using nylon sacks. [Courtesy]

Smoke forked heavily under the sufuria of ugali that Mary Ndunge was preparing. She hoped it wouldn’t be dense enough to wake her one-year-old daughter tucked in a makeshift bed a few meters from her. She was confident though that the coughing reverberations from her three-year-old daughter seated beside her wouldn’t awaken her sister.

“I have to choose between the smoke and staying hungry,” said Ndunge. “My kids understand it’s the price they have to pay”.

Lunch was fast approaching, her other four kids will be home from school and she has to add more sacks to the already burning fire to hasten the preparation.