- The National Environment Management Authority had announced that the Kiamaiko slaughterhouses have to be shut over pollution of the environment.
- Nema said this was not the first time that questions about environmental practices and hygiene standards had been raised in Kiamaiko.
The proposed slaughter house meant to house the 15 Kiamaiko abattoirs is not complete, the Star has learnt.
Progress report by Environmental Inspectors shows that the construction of the main structure has stalled for some time, with only the waste water treatment part having been completed and connected to the sewer line.
“The animal holding shed in the new site (which is separate plot) is not complete,” part of the progress dated February 21, 2022, said.
The new site is in Njiru along Kangundo Road.
The progress report said the perimeter wall of the new slaughter house is not complete since the section of the lower side along the pre-treatment plant has not been constructed.
The report further said county veterinary meat inspectors were still offering their services at the Kiamaiko slaughter house by the time of inspection.
It said there was evidence of payment of sewer services to Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company.
The National Environment Management Authority had announced that the Kiamaiko slaughterhouses have to be shut over pollution of the environment.
The slaughterhouse owners were supposed to relocate to the new site in Njiru by end of March.
The owners have, however, secured a court order preventing Nema from relocating them.
Nema said there is conflict of land use system in Kiamaiko as some of the slaughterhouses, which are commercial in nature, are located at the ground floor of residential flats without evidence of change of user.
Nema boss Mamo Mamo said each slaughter slab in Kiamaiko has an underground holding tank with sieves to trap solid waste which are removed and disposed of through the Nairobi City county waste collection system.
However, Mamo said there is no evidence to show that the waste is collected by Nema-licensed waste handlers and there were no tracking documents.
Mamo said blood and wastes from the offal are released with the waste water to the Nairobi Sewer System without any pre-treatment and analysis to establish whether it complies with the discharge standards.
The standards are set out in schedule five of the Environment Management and Coordination (Water Quality) Regulations, 2006.
He said there was evidence of blood and offal spillages into the environment.
Mamo said Kiamaiko is also densely populated, congested and with poor road networks.
“During rainy season, the area is very muddy while in the dry season, it is dusty thus the area generally is unhygienic for the activity,” Mamo said.
He further said every person is entitled to a clean and healthy environment.
Nema has been accusing the slaughterhouse of polluting the Nairobi River even as attempts to spruce it gains momentum.
The tributaries of the river feed into the Thwake dam.
In 2015, Nema issued a directive ordering the closure of 15 slaughterhouses in Nairobi’s Kiamaiko.
However, seven years later, the slaughterhouses are still in operation.
The operators continue to discharge untreated liquid waste into the river.
Kiamaiko is in Eastlands, 12km from the city centre.
The traders moved to the site, now popular with goat meat consumers, in 1996.
About 300 to 400 livestock are slaughtered at the facility daily, and abattoirs release the untreated solid waste into the river.
Nema said this was not the first time that questions about environmental practices and hygiene standards had been raised in Kiamaiko.
In 2018, another closure order was issued.
It was however lifted after a meeting by the owners of the abattoirs and government agencies.
During the meeting, it was resolved that the owners adhere to set regulations, failure to which they risk closure.
The operators agreed that all hides and skins will be taken to the licensed tanneries daily and all workers must be medically examined and properly dressed.
The owners had also been asked to provide clean washrooms for workers, designate holding pens away from the slaughterhouses and install monitoring chambers.
However, an emergency inspection by Nema in December last year revealed that the slaughterhouses had not fully implemented the conditions set, necessitating closure by the environment agency.
Early this year, Nema said it had given the operators up to February to organise themselves and move to the new site.
Mamo had warned that the authority will not grant any further extensions.
"We have really engaged them for long, now it’s time to move,” he said.
Nema takes stock of the natural resources in Kenya and their utilisation and conservation.
The authority also monitors and assesses activities by relevant lead agencies, to ensure that the environment is not degraded.
Nema is cleaning up tributaries feeding into Thwake dam.
This is after the auditor general Nancy Gathungu sounded the alarm over the quality of water set to be stored by the Sh82 billion dam.
The authority is using part of the Sh1.05 billion climate change cash secured last year to clean up Thwake dam tributaries.
Nema got the funds from the Green Climate Fund. The fund is for adaptation to climate change by vulnerable communities in lower Eastern.
The funding approval was granted during the 30th meeting of the GCF board held virtually on October 6, last year.
The project is titled 'Enhancing Community Resilience and Water Security in the Upper Athi River Catchment Area'.
The region is prone to drought and paradoxically also suffers from flooding of the Athi River basin.
Gathungu, in her audit, said the dam’s main supply will be the Athi River whose main tributary is the Nairobi River, which studies have revealed to be polluted with heavy metals.
Approximately, two million people from Lower Eastern are gearing up to use the dam to end their water woes dating to the pre-independence era.
The auditor said several studies have concluded that Nairobi River water is unfit for human consumption and hence not even suitable for growing crops.
The dam, which is being constructed downstream from Thwake and Athi rivers, is set to straddle 10km to create a lake reservoir of more than 690 million cubic metres.
It would be the main source of water for Kitui, Makueni and Machakos counties and the main supply to the upcoming Konza city.
Gathungu, in a review of the projects’ progress, said there was no evidence of efforts by the implementing agency to ensure the river will be free from pollutants.
(edited by Amol Awuor)