Kenya Pipeline Company promises to clean up river and soil after oil spill

MAKUENI: Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) management has eaten humble pie and apologised to residents of Thange location in Makueni County after a major oil spill in the area.

KPC acting Managing Director Florah Okoth and board chairman John Ngumi also promised to clean up the affected area and compensate residents for the damage, among other mitigation measures.

For more than five months now, residents of Thange, Moki, Mbulutini, Mwanza, Nzavoni and Ngomano villages have suffered after River Thange, their main source of water, was contaminated with oil.

With no action being taken after the residents reported the matter to the company and National Environmental Management Authority (Nema), they blockaded Mombasa Road for several  hours to protest the oil spillage.

This caught the attention of the company and local leaders who called for the meeting to appease the residents. On Wednesday, Ms Okoth said the company would engage experts to clean the river and the environment and make it better than “we found it.”

“I want to say sorry for the spillage and its attendant effects. I want to give my word for total compensation for all the affected people. We will do total clean-up of the water and the soils. We have already commissioned experts to carry out that exercise,” she told residents at Thange market.

The MD said before completion of investigations, the company will offer stop gap solutions such as providing clean water to the residents.

“There is what we can do to mitigate the problems in the meantime and we will do that, just be patient and give us time to address the issues,” she said, adding that the company will provide three more giant water tanks in the villages.

Initially KPC had provided three tanks which the residents said were not enough. Okoth thanked the community for their patience and preserving the company property. KPC’s board chairman John Ngumi gave an assurance that all measures would be taken to mitigate effects of the oil spillage.

“What needs procurement will be procured as a matter of urgency,” said Mr Ngumi, adding that the local youths will benefit from jobs in the clean-up of the river and the surrounding environment.

But even with such promises, the county Nema office has no kind words for KPC which it accuses of being slow in containing the spillage, months after it was reported.

The county Nema director, Mr Stephen Kimutu, regretted that it took KPC too long to rectify the situation yet they have the requisite machinery and expertise.

He said he had called for a specialised team of experts from Nairobi to carry out further investigations to establish, among other things, if KPC had been negligent.