Residents Sue Kenyan Government Over Alleged Oil Company Toxic Waste Dumping

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Before becoming a local politician, Assunta Gelgetile was a nurse in Marsabit, northern Kenya. During that time, she sawย many patients, mainly women and children, having difficulty swallowing solids. She would refer the cases to Marsabit County hospital dozens of miles away, where further tests revealed the patients had throatย cancer.

โ€œI reasoned that this must be related to theย food or water people were consuming,โ€ she told DeSmog. After detecting a trend, sheย askedย the authorities to help โ€œinvestigate what exactly was the cause of the cancer that was causing so many deaths,โ€ sheย said.

Investigations by the Kenya governmentโ€™s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the local Catholic church linked the disease to local ground water. A 2010 report by Greenpeace blamed this on hazardous nuclear waste dumped in the area by foreign energyย companies.

Despite the allegations, nothing has been done. People continueย to get sick andย die.

In desperation, residents of the Chalbi desert and North Horr regionย are now suing the Kenya and Countyย governments, asking the courts to compel the officials to supply residents and their livestock with cleanย water.

It is an unprecedented case, which hinges onย Kenyaโ€™s constitutional right for citizens to have access to a safe and healthyย environment.


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Poisonedย water

Local activists have repeatedly claimed dumped toxic waste is the reason for high rates of illness in theย area.

โ€œAgents of both local and national governments have collected samples from local wells on numerous occasions but they have never told us what they have found, neither have they provided alternative water sources,โ€ says Gelgetile, now an elected member of the Countyย Assembly.

Studies commissioned by the Catholic church concluded the water in the area is poisoned with arsenic nitrates; dangerous chemicals believed to be the cause of the numerous cancer cases in Kargi, Dukana, Bubisa, Maikona, North Hall and Kalacha, according to Hilary Harkano, who headed the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Churchโ€™s Diocese of Marsabit between 2003 andย 2010.

Whitish salt or ash-like substances packed in bags has been found buried in the area, endangering lives of more than 10,000 residents, Harkanoย claims.

Greenpeaceโ€™s report blamedย the environmental issues on oil company Amoco, part of BP, for failing to properly to dispose of drilling waste after carrying out extensive oil exploration in theย  area in the 1980s. Italian NGO Legambiente also previously revealedย ships were sent to the region with the toxic waste in the 1990s.ย The companies have for decades remained silent on theย issue.

Andrew Arbelle, a 27 year-old man from Kargi, fled the plains for Nairobi after the death of his mother. Namana Segelan Arbelle died at the age of 62 after having being diagnosed with cancer. She first knew something was wrong when she had trouble swallowing meat. She sought help at the local hospital, and was ultimately sent for care inย Nairobi.

She would finally succumb to the disease in May 2018, but not before the family had sold nearly all their cattle, their possessions, and held fundraisers for her treatment, Arbelle told DeSmog. His aunt has now been admitted to hospital suffering from the sameย disease.

โ€œGive our people water; water that is not salty and water that is safe,โ€ Arbelle pleads. โ€œAlternatively move all of us out of all our settlements and settle us far away from Chalbi to areas where living is lessย risky.โ€

Courtย case

In the suit filed in the High Court in Nairobi, the villagers are asking to be provided with their constitutional right to a safe livingย environment.

The victims have a case, Greenpeace Africaโ€™s Claire Nasike told DeSmog. The government should initiate the process of decontaminating the areaย to rid it of harmful material to make it safe, and ought to bear the cost of treating patients, she argues. The residents may also try and sue Amoco for failing to properly decommission exploration wells and endangering lives of people and animals, sheย notes.

โ€œLegal action can be instituted to compel the company to compensate for lost lives and lost livelihoods to cater for deaths of livestock from drinking contaminated water,โ€ sheย said.

โ€œThis cleaning up has been done elsewhere and can be done here. After all this is the only place that these people callย home.โ€

Image credit:ย Kandukuru Nagarjun/Flickrย CC BYย 2.0

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Maina Waruru, is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, with over 20 years of experience covering science and development, climate, environment, water, agriculture, and higher education across Africa. His work has appeared in Reuters, The Nation, Business Daily, and The Standard, among others.

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