Inside Nairobi City’s dog pound where man’s best friends are going hungry

Hungry dogs waste away at the Nairobi City Council Dog Pound, on Friday. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Their sorrowful eyes tell it all. The slow and painful whimpers sum it up. The dogs are hungry, and they show it whenever they sense human presence. At the Nairobi City Council Dog pound where stray and abandoned dogs are supposed to be rehabilitated, feeding dishes are empty. Whenever they hear footsteps along the corridor, they jump and reach out with their tongues, hoping someone will feed them.

The photographer and I pose as a couple out to adopt a puppy after a tip off on the inhumane treatment the animals are subjected to at the dog pound. The pound is located in an old building, a few metres from Jubilee Party offices in Pangani.