• The committee tasked EPZA CEO Hussein Mohammed, Mavwasco CEO, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (TARDA) CEO to fervently fulfill their obligations.
• The lawmakers want licenses for non-compliant businesses revoked, and emphasized the need for functioning treatment plants in sewerage companies.
Image: FILE
MPs have called out the Export Processing Zones Authority, Mavoko Water, and Tana and Athi River Development Authority for contributing to pollution of Athi River.
The Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai-led Public Petitions committee told the organizations’ bosses during a comprehensive tour along Athi River to ascertain the extent of pollution to take corrective measures or face yet-to-be specified consequences.
The committee tasked EPZA CEO Hussein Mohammed, Mavwasco CEO, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (TARDA) CEO to fervently fulfill their obligations.
"Their negligence poses a severe threat to the lives of Kenyan citizens," Mbai said during the Friday tour, saying the repercussions of the pollution caused by the entities cannot be overstated.
“These entities are the primary perpetrators responsible for the contamination plaguing River Athi,” the House team said.
The MPs called for the immediate resignation of the National Environment Management authority [NEMA] Director General Mamo Mamo, citing a lack of dedication to fulfilling the authority’s responsibilities.
The committee called for swift administrative action to be taken against industries discharging effluents into the River Athi and those operating without Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs).
The lawmakers want licenses for non-compliant businesses revoked, and emphasized the need for functioning treatment plants in sewerage companies.
It was discovered during the tour that the MAVWASCO treatment plant has since been abandoned to a point it has been completely run down.
It was established that the forsaken and poorly managed treatment plant acts as a source of both atmospheric contamination and river contamination when it overflows.
As a way forward, MPs proposed that NEMA exclusively grants licenses to factories equipped with operational effluent treatment plants.
They recommended conducting regular and unannounced inspections while enforcing administrative measures against companies that fail to comply.
Furthermore, the committee suggested the drafting of legislation with stringent punitive measures to safeguard vulnerable Kenyan citizens from non-compliant industries and residential estates.
The House team visited the site following a petition by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka – also Energy committee chairman, protesting pollution of River Athi.
The MP argued that the river is a crucial water way that flows into Thwake Dam, adding that the pollution would lead to the multibillion shilling dam being a ‘sewer dam’.