Justice for the people of Owino Uhuru comes up once again in the Mombasa Environment and Land Court Monday morning. It has been 12 years since Metal Refinery (EPZ) Ltd was closed after toxic lead poisoning changed the lives of this Changamwe community forever.
What is at stake for this community’s right of redress and compensation and the nation’s right to a clean and healthy environment? About 3,000 people in 450 households were living on the 13.5‑acre Owino‑Uhuru village in Changamwe, Mombasa when, in 2006, Penguin Paper and Book Company leased the neighbouring plot to Metal Refinery EPZ Ltd to set up a lead‑acid battery recycling plant next door. What followed became one of the worst documented environmental disasters in Kenyan history. According to court records, Metal Refinery’s lead recycling leaked toxic waste into soil, water and air leading to irreparable damage to their staff and neighbours.
Government toxicology reports demonstrate that the blood of villagers contained 420 micro grams of lead, 800 times what is considered safe for human beings. The late Linet Nabwire was among them. She had three miscarriages before she died during childbirth. Extremely high blood lead levels among children have caused permanent neurological damage.
Adults continue to suffer kidney disease, heart conditions, respiratory problems, infertility and miscarriages. Strapped with high medical bills, families’ incomes have been collapsed by expensive long-term medical care. These acute health and environmental rights violations and the lack of restorative justice have punctured trust in both county and national governments.
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Before community leaders and the Centre for Justice Governance and Environmental Action (CJGEA) took landowner Penguin Paper, polluter Metal Refinery, and the Environmental Ministry, Export Processing Zone Authority and the National Environmental Management Agency to court, they spent years organising residents, exposing the truth through journalism, protesting publicly, and pushing for policy change.
Three demands have guided them. The factory must be closed, the environmental damage restored, and every affected person compensated. It took close to eight straight years to close the factory. The legal case has twisted. In 2014, the Mombasa Environmental and Land Court found multiple state agencies and the companies proportionately liable. The court instructed both to pay the community Sh1.3 billion in damages within 90 days. They further instructed both polluters and state agencies to clean up the area.
Metal Refinery and the government tragically overturned this historic victory in the Court of Appeal. Although the appellate court agreed that the ELC had proper jurisdiction, it cancelled the compensation, arguing that the beneficiaries had not been clearly identified. The community then appealed to the Supreme Court.
In 2024, Kenya’s highest court restored the compensation award and ordered the government to pay within 120 days. One year later, the government has still not complied. The Monday mention will assess whether NEMA has completed the required environmental restoration under Kenyan law and the Basel and Bamako Conventions on toxic waste.
Owino Uhuru is one of Kenya’s largest-ever environmental compensation awards. While no compensation has been paid to a single victim, no clean up has happened and the directors of Metal Refinery have left for India before being held accountable for endangering Kenyans, the community remains unified. The case of Metal Refinery Ltd disaster is relevant for Tuesday’s hearing on the Presidential initiative to compensate victims of violent protest policing. Endless court appeals will betray Kenyans who deserve truth, justice and reparations.
The KNCHR must now generate a clear criteria for compensation, a fair process to identify eligible beneficiaries, faster justice in courts, victim redress policy recommendations, and meaningful ways to honour the fallen.
State failure to resolve both mass injustices will predictably provide rich fodder for non establishment candidates in the General Election. May the late minor Samwel Omondi Okello and the victims of Kenya’s worst environmental disaster as well as Rex Masai and all the victims of protests find wisdom and decisive guidance from our courts this week. They, and we, deserve this.
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Justice for the people of Owino Uhuru comes up once again in the Mombasa Environment and Land Court Monday morning. It has been 12 years since Metal Refinery (EPZ) Ltd was closed after toxic lead poisoning changed the lives of this Changamwe community forever.
What is at stake for this community’s right of redress and compensation and the nation’s right to a clean and healthy environment? About 3,000 people in 450 households were living on the 13.5‑acre Owino‑Uhuru village in Changamwe, Mombasa when, in 2006, Penguin Paper and Book Company leased the neighbouring plot to Metal Refinery EPZ Ltd to set up a lead‑acid battery recycling plant next door. What followed became one of the worst documented environmental disasters in Kenyan history. According to court records, Metal Refinery’s lead recycling leaked toxic waste into soil, water and air leading to irreparable damage to their staff and neighbours.
Government toxicology reports demonstrate that the blood of villagers contained 420 micro grams of lead, 800 times what is considered safe for human beings. The late Linet Nabwire was among them. She had three miscarriages before she died during childbirth. Extremely high blood lead levels among children have caused permanent neurological damage.
Adults continue to suffer kidney disease, heart conditions, respiratory problems, infertility and miscarriages. Strapped with high medical bills, families’ incomes have been collapsed by expensive long-term medical care. These acute health and environmental rights violations and the lack of restorative justice have punctured trust in both county and national governments.
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channel
on WhatsApp
Before community leaders and the Centre for Justice Governance and Environmental Action (CJGEA) took landowner Penguin Paper, polluter Metal Refinery, and the Environmental Ministry, Export Processing Zone Authority and the National Environmental Management Agency to court, they spent years organising residents, exposing the truth through journalism, protesting publicly, and pushing for policy change.
Three demands have guided them. The factory must be closed, the environmental damage restored, and every affected person compensated. It took close to eight straight years to close the factory. The legal case has twisted. In 2014, the Mombasa Environmental and Land Court found multiple state agencies and the companies proportionately liable. The court instructed both to pay the community Sh1.3 billion in damages within 90 days. They further instructed both polluters and state agencies to clean up the area.
Metal Refinery and the government tragically overturned this historic victory in the Court of Appeal. Although the appellate court agreed that the ELC had proper jurisdiction, it cancelled the compensation, arguing that the beneficiaries had not been clearly identified. The community then appealed to the Supreme Court.
In 2024, Kenya’s highest court restored the compensation award and ordered the government to pay within 120 days. One year later, the government has still not complied. The Monday mention will assess whether NEMA has completed the required environmental restoration under Kenyan law and the Basel and Bamako Conventions on toxic waste.
Owino Uhuru is one of Kenya’s largest-ever environmental compensation awards. While no compensation has been paid to a single victim, no clean up has happened and the directors of Metal Refinery have left for India before being held accountable for endangering Kenyans, the community remains unified. The case of Metal Refinery Ltd disaster is relevant for Tuesday’s hearing on the Presidential initiative to compensate victims of violent protest policing. Endless court appeals will betray Kenyans who deserve truth, justice and reparations.
The KNCHR must now generate a clear criteria for compensation, a fair process to identify eligible beneficiaries, faster justice in courts, victim redress policy recommendations, and meaningful ways to honour the fallen.
State failure to resolve both mass injustices will predictably provide rich fodder for non establishment candidates in the General Election. May the late minor Samwel Omondi Okello and the victims of Kenya’s worst environmental disaster as well as Rex Masai and all the victims of protests find wisdom and decisive guidance from our courts this week. They, and we, deserve this.
[email protected]
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By Irungu Houghton