Environmental watchdog puts Kibos Sugar on closure notice over pollution of L.Victoria

National Environmental Complaints Committee Secretary John Chumo (center) with other Committee members during a tour at a lagoon established by Kibos Sugar Company for industrial waste on March 15th 2018. [Photo by Collins Oduor/Standard]

The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) yesterday issued a 14-day closure notice to Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries Factory over allegations of pollution.

Officials from the authority's complaints committee raided the factory on the outskirts of Kisumu following concerns raised by residents that it was polluting the air and nearby rivers draining into Lake Victoria.

The factory now has two weeks to stop emptying effluent into River Kibos, which is a source of water for thousands of locals.

The officials threatened to suspend the factory's ethanol distillery arm over poor waste disposal and claims of polluting two rivers with dangerous chemical waste.

“We have registered several complaints from both the public and the county government and, from this visit, we have established poor compliance,” said John Chumo, the complaints committee secretary.

Committee members, who were accompanied by officials from the Water Resource Management Authority and the county government, found the firm in contravention of environmental laws and threatened to suspend all its operations should it fail to implement recommendations in two weeks.

County Nema officer Ngira Osiema was unable to explain how the lagoon, which has been in use for more than two years, was commissioned without meeting construction specifications.

Factory chairman Raju Chanan confirmed there was an accidental spillage of the distillery’s industrial waste about a month ago but “it was handled with immediacy”.

Pressed to explain why the lagoon had not been layered in protective material to check against possible seepage, Mr Raju said they used a layer of compounded rocks and murram to form its base.

He said other than the accidental spillage, no other complaint had been raised against the company’s waste disposal method.