UGANDA - Fighting back the tears, 22-year-old rubbish collector Okuku Prince recalls the moment his best friend's lifeless body was found at a ...
massive rubbish dump in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The landslide at the Kiteezi dump last August killed 30 people, including his friend Sanya Kezia. "I think some people are still underneath the garbage," he tells the BBC.
Many of them eked out a living by washing and selling whatever discarded items they found that still had value - anything from fishing nets to plastic bottles, glass jars and the components of old electronic devices. A blame-game erupted after the fatal collapse, with Kampala's city council and central government accusing each other of negligence, while some of the dead still languished under tonnes of rubbish without the dignity of a burial.
When government tractors did eventually dig up Kezia's body, there were injuries to the 21-year-old's face. It was horrifying for his friend to see him enveloped by stinking, rotting waste. "We're not safe here. Unless they [repair] it, maybe level it. Otherwise, people are not safe," says Mr Prince, who before becoming a rubbish-picker had been studying law at the Islamic University of Uganda.