Mombasa residents protest waste discharge to their villages

More than 10,000 residents from three villages in Jomvu Constituency, Mombasa County have protested what they termed as poor drainage system construction by a private developer saying it is now discharging waste into the villages.

According to Joseph Mwayengo, one of the residents, the discharge is a health hazard as some residents have already started developing skin complications.

He said the private developer, who was contracted to construct the drainage system, did a shoddy job and failed to complete the work which made him to direct the wastage towards the villages, a matter they raised with the county government but no action was taken.

The locals also claimed that the problem has caused destruction of environment particularly during this rainy season.

This comes barely a year after residents of Owino Uhuru in the same constituency protested against a battery Manufacturing Company which discharged smoke that led to the death of three workers as a result of lead poisoning.

According to a Human Rights Watch report that was released two months later, over 3,000 residents of Owino Uhuru slum were exposed to significant amounts of lead since the smelter was opened in 2007.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far reckoned that high levels of environment effluence cause brain, liver, kidney, nerve, skin and stomach damage, as well as permanent intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The residents insisted that they are not demanding Kenya make new laws to curb waste disposal but they just want the government to enforce the ones already in existence.

The Environmental Management and Coordination Act, in effect since 1999 makes it illegal for industries to release toxic effluent that causes harm to human health. The law also threatens those responsible for harmful pollution with imprisonment or fines, but so far this appears to amount to an empty threat.