As Kenyan businesses replace ageing computers, servers and printers, millions of shillings in reusable equipment and sensitive corporate data risk being lost when retired devices leave offices without proper checks.
The problem extends beyond electronic waste as a discarded laptop can still hold customer records, employee information and financial documents, while a computer sold cheaply at auction may retain significant resale value.
Olivier Vanden, founder of technology reuse organisation Close the Gap, says businesses often treat old equipment as a disposal problem instead of an asset that requires secure handling, valuation and a documented second life. ‘Every device, every brand, has a market value after its useful life,’ he says.
‘For a country like Kenya, we are looking at hundreds of billions of shillings wasted each year, which is not optimised and where there is enormous potential for financial value for companies.’
The scale of the losses is difficult to establish as Kenya lacks reliable public figures separating discarded office computers, servers and printers from the wider stream of electronic waste.
The Global E-waste Monitor 2024 estimates Kenya generated 88,000 tonnes of electronic waste in 2022, but its database records no formally collected quantity for that year, exposing a gap in the data needed to track how much equipment is reused, recycled, stored or dumped.
Globally, electronic waste reached 62 million tonnes in 2022, while only 22.3 percent was documented as formally collected and recycled in an environmentally sound manner, according to the United Nations (UN)-backed report.
For Kenyan businesses, the lack of clear disposal records makes it harder to measure the value tied up in old equipment or establish whether devices containing sensitive information are being handled securely.
Vanden estimates that only a minority of corporate devices pass through formal asset-disposal processes, with many instead transferred to employees, donated to schools or kept in storage.
While these transfers can extend a device’s useful life, the techie argues, they can only do so if the company first removes its data, checks the equipment’s condition and records who takes responsibility for it.
Kenya’s Data Protection Act requires organisations handling personal information to put appropriate technical and organisational safeguards in place, including measures to protect data against unauthorised access, loss or misuse.
The law also requires a data controller to notify the Data Commissioner within 72 hours of becoming aware of a personal-data breach where unauthorised access creates a real risk of harm to affected people.
A laptop leaving an office without its data being securely erased can, therefore, create a risk that extends beyond the device’s resale value, potentially exposing customer records, employee details or business documents.
According to Vanden, simply deleting files or resetting a computer may not provide sufficient assurance that information cannot be recovered, making verified data wiping or physical destruction of storage media important before equipment changes hands.
He says the documentation gives companies a record of which devices were processed and what happened to them, rather than leaving them dependent on a buyer’s or auctioneer’s assurance.
The same asset-by-asset record can help businesses establish whether a computer is suitable for reuse, needs repair, or should be dismantled for materials recovery instead of being resold.
Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (Nema) says its e-waste guidance covers collection, sorting, recycling and disposal, while the Sustainable Waste Management Act places obligations on producers across a product’s life cycle.
The government also launched national e-waste guidelines in 2025, setting out roles for producers, consumers, recyclers and public agencies as it seeks to improve collection and environmentally sound disposal.
The framework is designed to move electronics away from uncontrolled disposal, while the ICT Authority’s National Refurbishment, Reuse, Assemble and E-waste Management programme aims to expand collection, refurbishment and processing capacity.