Kiteezi Landfill in Kampala

On the way to the Kiteezi Landfill in Kampala, the largest landfill in Uganda and all of East Africa.

There is a lot to discover in Kampala. And some cool locations are certainly not listed in the usual travel guides. With the Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi) I went to the Kiteezi district in the north of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. My goal: Here in Kiteezi is the Kiteezi Landfill, a large garbage dump. In fact, it is the largest landfill in all of East Africa.
Hundreds of trucks bring the garbage from the metropolis of Kampala to the landfill in Kiteezi.

Already during the ride with the motorcycle taxi to Kiteezi, shortly before I reached the garbage dump, the street scene had changed significantly. At the roadside and on the lots of the houses, meter-high sacks full of garbage were stored. Collected by hand at the Kiteezi landfill. Plastic bottles, cans, plastics and other recyclable materials are collected, sorted and sold by hundreds, if not thousands, of people here at the Kampala landfill.
A few months before my trip to Uganda I saw a report on TV about this landfill, the Kiteezi Landfill in Kampala, in a report at home. And already at this point it was clear to me that I absolutely had to visit the garbage dump in Kampala and that I wanted to get my own picture of Kiteezi Landfill.
No sooner said than done and so I walked through the garbage dump in Kampala in the Kiteezi district for a while. A tour of the Kampala garbage dump is of course not included in a travel guide as an excursion tip. But I found the tour of the Kiteezi Landfill totally exciting.

Kampala Africa Landfill Kiteezi

Garbage collector at Kampala Kiteezi landfill

The landfill is not fenced, so access to the landfill is very easy. In addition to numerous trucks, a large number of people could also be found at the garbage dump. Equipped with sacks and stooped, tons of men, women and children were in the garbage dump looking for cans, bottles and other materials. And the landfill also has numerous animal visitors. Lots of marabous (the big birds from the stork family) and goats were on the dump looking for food.
And very, very important: The smell on the landfill took some getting used to! There was a very intense stench in the air, which I had already noticed in a somewhat weaker form when I hadn’t even been to the landfill site.
In total, several thousand people live and work here in Kampala on and at the garbage dump in the Kiteezi district of and with the garbage.

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