The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has intensified its operations to enforce compliance across the country.
The Authority, led by Director General Dr. Mamo B. Mamo, conducted a sting operations on non-compliant companies in Athi River, Machakos County.
The operations, overseen by Environment Cabinet Secretary (CS) Deborah Barasa, was conducted in two industrial companies located within Mlolongo Township.
“Today, we move far from acknowledgment to enforcement. I have directed NEMA to undertake immediate, coordinated and comprehensive inspections of all facilities discharging wastes into our rivers and their tributaries,” CS Barasa addressed the press shortly after they concluded the operations in Mlolongo on Tuesday, May 5 evening.
The CS said the ongoing inspections would be vigorous, transparent, and uncompromising.
Barasa said she had dedicated her time and would be accompanying NEMA in the operations on a monthly basis.
“I’m glad to join NEMA today to undertake inspection of industries likely to discharge effluent into the Nairobi Urban River or Nairobi River systems. The condition in Nairobi River is no longer an environmental concern but a measurable challenge,” she said.
The river, according to the CS, is a channel of contamination and river system that is overwhelmed with pollution.
She said there was a lot of discharge, release of chemicals, effluent in informal settlements who contribute raw sewerage and storm water run-offs carrying plastic, and heavy metals into our rivers.
Barasa said over 70 percent of waste water generated in Nairobi is discharged into our urban rivers as untreated effluent.
It was against this scientific reality, CS Barasa said, that they were taking decisive action together with NEMA, noting that for too long, “our rivers have borne the cost of industrial negligence and systematic failure.”
The CS said over 100 facilities were inspected last year and there was improvement in the quality of discharge into rivers.
She warned that facilities operating without functional effluent treatment plants or with systems that don’t meet discharge standards would be shut down.
“We will also take firm actions against those facilities engaging in the open burning of wastes, a practice prohibited under Air Quality Regulations 2024 and associated with harmful emissions,” Barasa added.
