•However, the company chairman Raju Chanan denied the accusations, he said they are committed to environmental conservation.
•Kigame said the factory has been emitting smoke, dust and polluting River Kobos, a source of water to residents and their animals.
Image: MAURICE ALAL
@alalmaurice
Presidential aspirant Reuben Kigame has called for the relocation of the Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries Limited factory near the Kibos School for the Blind.
Kigame said Kibos factory is a source of pollution.
However, the company chairman Raju Chanan denied the accusations. He said they are committed to environmental conservation.
Kigame, who toured the learning institution which he attended more than 40 years ago, said the factory has been emitting smoke, dust and polluting River Kobos, a source of water to residents and their animals.
Residents have on several occasions alleged effluent discharges directly into River Kibos, noise and air pollution.
The hardest-hit institutions are Kibos Prison, Kibos School for the Blind and Kibos Primary School.
The singer, who donated assorted food items to the school on Tuesday, said the government should reconsider reverting special schools to the management of churches like before.
“Such schools used to be managed by the Salvation Army, the Catholic church and evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya,” he said.
Human rights activists have been pushing for the relocation of the factory.
A senate and a parliamentary committee have in the past raised queries concerning the pollution issue.
Kigame said the government should consider more funds for the learning institutions and more facilities.
He said vital items like brails and abacus for learning are hard to find in such special schools.
Kigame said students with special needs can make it in life.
“I first went to Nairobi through music and later travelled abroad through the same. I want to tell children that all is possible with God and hard work,” he said.
The special tutor who toured the Kibos Secondary School for the visually impaired encouraged the students to work hard.
In 2019, a parliamentary committee wanted the factory relocated for interfering with work in adjacent institutions and threatening lives.
Kibos, established in 2008, is accused of discharging effluent in River Kibos and causing massive water and air pollution.
Residents say the plant is noisy and releases dust into the air.
National Environmental Management Authority, education and security officers have been accused of complicity.
The parliamentary committee on Labour and Social Welfare was in the area to investigate the extent of environmental damage caused by the firm.
“We can’t allow industries to displace harmless innocent children in the name of making profits,” Chairman Ali Wario (Bura)
Some of his colleagues told the company to relocate the school and ensure it has the standard infrastructure or else move out.
The lawmakers said any industry should improve lives, otherwise, it has no business existing.
Meanwhile, Kigame dismissed claims the presidential race is a two-horse race affair, between ODM leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.
“We are not horses, we are many aspirants,” he said.
Kigame said he is the right person for the job and Kenyans should elect him to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris