Abstract
The forgotten half; environmental health in Nairobi's poverty areas describes the unhealthy conditions in which the city's poor live, conditions that arise largely through a policy of neglect on the part of the public authorities. The city has never made a serious or systematic attempt to provide adequate services in low-income areas. Voluntary organizations are the main organizers and providers of health and community development programmes in these areas. The paper also discusses the lack of basic data on environmental and health conditions which also reflect indifference, on the part of the authorities, to environmental health in poverty areas.