BAMBURI CEMENT: CIVIL ACTION, DEMONSTRATIONS PLANNED AGAINSt CEMENT GIANT

Lafarge owned Bamburi Cement, indeed, is East Africa’s finest Cement company with an annual profit running into billions of shillings.

It prides itself in being an environmental conscious company, Brilliant Human resource welfare and so much more.

However, it has now emerged that not all is rosy between the company and a section of the community living near it’s Bamburi Cement Factory in Mombasa.

Bamburi residents, encompassing Mwembelegeza, Kwa Bulo and Bamburi Villages are now up in arms over the dust emmissions from the factory.

An activist in the region who preferred to remain anonymous due to what he terms ‘security reasons’, is planning a door to door rights sensitization campaign of the local community. Together with a group of well over 100 youth drawn from the surrounding area, they plan to hold demonstrations, stop quarry activities and petition the central government to carry a forensic audit of the firms environmental impact and effects on the populace.

“Bamburi has seen a spike in chest related conditions, visit Bamburi Health Centre today, or any Private clinic of your choice and you will be see for yourself the rise in number,” The activist, whom we will simply call Rodgers tells Mombasa411.

A patient with Chest Complications

“Our people are dying and the French continue getting rich off our tears. This will not happen!

“Everyday, 4 to 6 times a day, Bamburi Cement releases at least 200 tonnes of dust into the atmosphere. You will see a thick cloud of dust, being released with total disregard to the people living nearby.”

Rodgers further tells Mombasa411 that what is released is not smoke.

“Smoke goes up to the atmosphere..up into the clouds…but stand from a vantage point like Mwakirunge area and see the factory from afar. The emmission which is Dust…forms a dense cloud within a 2 – 5 kilometre radius around the factory.

“If you see the trees around Bamburi and the window panes of building around, they are dusty…unasafisha leo, ukirudi jioni, vumbi tele.

When the factory was built decades ago, the area surrounding it was a bush…with no formal settlements for miles around. However as the years went by, the areas has witnessed an upsurge in populace and the fact that Kisauni District’s new headquarters is just 200 metres from the factory augurs well to the thriving business population around the factory.

Indeed, we can say Bamburi Cement has become a victim of it’s own success. For this factory has built a thriving economy of hotels, real estate, bars and schools where it’s staff and immediate kin have an interest. This in turn has drawn many people like moth to a fire and suddenly the company finds what was once an open plain is now a thriving urban dwelling…….

Rodgers demands National Environmental Management Authority to look into this matter urgently.

“We are prepared. We know how to cripple their operations. If they won’t heed to our list of demands, which we shall table to their office early next week, then we will have no otherwise but to carry what is constitutionally allowed to demand our rights.”

“But for now we shall await and give dialogue a chance. The dust emissions MUST be curtailed. We are tired of visiting hospitals now and then and losing our loved one’s to chest complications.”

Mombasa411 gives offers an opportunity for a right of reply to Lafarge Bamburi Cement Company.

Contact us:  mombasa411@gmail.com

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