Expert says Owino Uhuru slum is highly contaminated, should be evacuated

Retired Government Chemist Texicology Chrispas Wandera testifying before the High Court during the hearing of a case between Owino Uhuru residents and a Lead company in Mombasa County, July 26, 2018. [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD]

The level of lead in Owino Uhuru slum is above acceptable levels, a court has heard.

Retired government chemist Bideru Wandera has recommended that because of contamination, the residents should be relocated and the soil excavated and buried in a deep mine.

Mr Wandera told Justice Anne Omollo that the level of lead was higher than the one recommended by the World Health Organisation.

He told the court he was concerned about the levels of lead found in the blood samples of 50 residents of the slum that is home to more than 3,000 people.

“When you have lead levels of beyond 200 microgrammes per decimetre of blood, you can easily die. In Sagar, a slum in Dakar, Senegal, for instance, 10 children died from 100 microgrammes of lead,” said Wandera.

Slum dwellers

The former official was testifying in a case in which the slum dwellers are seeking Sh2 billion, compensation from the Government due to poisoning from a lead smelting factory.

The dwellers, through the Centre for Justice, Governance and Environmental Action, filed the petition in 2016 after the relevant Government bodies failed to address their plight.

The Attorney General, the Cabinet secretaries for Environment, Water and Natural Resources and Health, as well as the National Environment Management Authority, the Mombasa County government, the Export Processing Zones Authority, Metal Refinery EPZ Ltd and Penguin Paper and Book Company are the respondents.

The petitioners claimed that since the factory started operations in 2006, there had been more than 20 deaths due to lead poisoning. On Wednesday, a former employee at the lead factory, Jackson Wanyama, told the court his wife, Lynette, died from poisoning. "When she was tested, she was found to have high levels of lead in her blood," he told court.