A poison so toxic it is still ravaging a village six years later

In early 2007, Alfred Ogola Mulo (pictured) was tasked with stopping protests against a lead-acid battery recycling factory at Owino-Uhuru in Mombasa.

A village elder at the 13.5-acre Owino-Uhuru slum, Ogola felt duty-bound to stop an uprising against an investor. The factory was a big employer for the village’s poor residents after all.

He now regrets doing so. His family has been ravaged by diseases linked to the poisonous waste released from the factory he vehemently defended.

“My son and many other people I know worked there. I have since lost three close friends whose blood samples were found to contain high levels of lead. I am sick and so are my wife and all my children.”

A daughter has lost her eyesight. The others in his family suffer from muscle pain, headache, joint swelling and diarrhoea. The cause of their problems? Lead poisoning.

When he was tested in 2014, the lead levels in his blood were found to be 93.2 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dl), almost 10 times the acceptable levels of 10mg/dl. Mg/dl is the standard measurement of substance in a specific amount of blood.

“In 2017 my skin, especially around my legs and arms, started to turn steel grey. One day, I fell down and since then I must walk with crutches,” he said.

Samples from Ogola’s sons, Daniel Ochieng and Michael Oduor, were found to contain lead levels of 53mg/dl and 60.1mg/dl respectively. His daughter Catherine Awour had 56.3mg/dl.

“In 2015, she dropped out of school in Form Three after she developed an eyesight problem,” Ogola said.

The factory, Metal Refinery Limited, has since been found guilty of discharging the toxic waste by a Mombasa Court.

But experts have warned that the area around Owino-Uhuru remains highly contaminated, six years after the factory was shut. Its soils and water are very toxic.

The acceptable levels under the Environmental Protection Agency standards are set at 400mg/kg and 1000mg/kg in areas where children dwell.

But according to the analysis of the soil and water samples from the village’s open areas, Owino-Uhuru has lead levels of 64,000 mg/kg. Some parts of the slum have as high as 109,000mg/kg.

“The acceptable levels under Environmental Protection Agency are set at 1,000mg/kg in areas with no children,” says the report by Wandera Chrispus Bideru from the Government Chemist.

Despite this, many residents say they cannot relocate. At Owino-Uhuru, children play in areas where raw sewage flows in the open. 

Irene Akinyi, 28, was among residents whose blood samples were tested in 2016 by Lancet and the Government Chemist. She said she may have absorbed lead through inhalation or ingestion because she never worked at the factory. Her father Gabriel Oginga cannot walk because of severe pains in his legs. “He worked at the factory,” she said.

Akinyi’s neck glands are swollen. Her doctor has recommended that lead levels in her blood ought to be reduced before she undergoes corrective surgery.

Besides anaemia through deformation of haemoglobin, prolonged exposure to lead weakens bones and causes depression of Intelligent Quotient (IQ), according to reports tabled in court.

Victims of lead poisoning like Mzee Ogola and Akinyi were placed under chelation therapy — a treatment for heavy metal poisoning. Most of them have abandoned the treatment and opted for non-conventional medicine.

Chelation therapy, a delicate and complicated medical procedure to eliminate lead from their bodies, is expensive. “A six-day dose of calcium tablets is Sh1,600 which we can’t afford,” Akinyi said.

Doctors asked them to drink milk and eat ripe bananas as an alternative to the therapy. Still, many still cannot afford the milk and bananas.