Nema loses bid to overturn Sh700m court award for lead poison cleanup

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Residents of Owino Uhuru slum in Mikindani in Mombasa county have again won a case against agencies over a review of Sh700 million awarded by the Supreme Court for the cleanup of lead poisoning caused by a battery smelting plant in the area.

The Environment and Land Court sitting in Mombasa dismissed an application by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) after the agency claimed that the toxins had disappeared.

“The upshot of the foregoing is that the court is that the 4th respondent’s (Nema) application dated September 22, 2025, is unmerited,” Justice Yuvinalis Angima said in a judgement dated March 5, 2026.

Owino Uhuru residents and the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action (CJGEA) successfully sued Nema, several government agencies and Metal Refinery and were awarded Sh1.3 billion and Sh700 million for cleaning lead poison in the village.

But in its notice of motion dated September 22, 2022, Nema told the court that there was new evidence the polluted environment at Owino Uhuru had naturally remediated and hence declare that there was no significant contamination in the soil and water at the village.

The application was based on the affidavit sworn by Nema Director General Mamo B Mamo who said Nema collected soil and water samples from the area where the lead smelting plant was situated.

But in an affidavit sworn by executive director Phyllis Omido, CJGEA said lead is a heavy metal and chemical element that does not decompose, biodegrade or naturally disappear over time.