Aminibus belches black smoke; the lorry behind it in the traffic jam billows white fumes. Eyes smart in the smog as diesel gases from thousands of 10 and 15-year-old vehicles fill Nairobi’s hazy evening air, adding to pollution levels that are “beyond imagination”, according to one resident. This jam could last for one, three, even five hours – last year, one stretched for 30 miles.
We could easily be in Cairo, Lagos or another African megacity, but this is the eight-lane Mombasa Road in Kenya’s capital – a permanently clogged artery in a metropolis where the number of vehicles doubles every six years.
Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa to have banned cars using the most sulphurous fuels, but what research there is suggests this is still one of the most polluted cities in the world – made worse by smoke from roadside rubbish fires, diesel generators and indoor cooking stoves.
No one knows for sure, however, because like nearly all African cities, Nairobi does not regularly monitor its urban air quality.
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