Nairobi Industrial Area: Materials

Part of a four-part series on Gikomba: Intro Products Tools Materials

Essential to the Industrial Area’s thriving activity, and indeed a critical differentiator from rural jua kali, is an equally thriving materials infrastructure. To sustain the manufacturing of so many diverse products, a separate industry has emerged for raw materials, both recycled and new.

One of the first things you see as you enter the area, a mountain of oil drums left over from local factories. Middlemen regularly deliver waste and scrap, as well as new materials, directly from factories.

These red and white containers, carried on trucks and bikes, constantly flow into the area carrying deliveries of meat.

Charcoal is a major source of fuel in the area.

This is a magical place where you can buy all the scrap materials you want for 100 KSH/1.28 USD per kilogram. They buy materials at 18 KSH/0.23 USD per kilogram, operating at a nice margin and fostering a sustainable industry of low-wage trash collectors.

Check out all this stuff!

So much cool stuff I don’t even know what to do with myself! Blades, meshes, gears, even lead screws.

Think of what you could do with these giant gears, pulleys, and bearings.

A trash collector dragging heaps of scrap materials.

A jua kali rummaging through his personal stash of materials. Working with scrap material presents new design challenges. Flexibility is critical when ideal parts are not always available.

Digging for the perfect part.

A pile of used jikos that will probably be converted into new, pretty ones.