Residents of the Myland area in Utawala, Nairobi, protested ongoing mining activities at a nearby quarry, lamenting that the noise and dust was affecting their businesses.
The residents, on Sunday, April 23, claimed that the 5-acre piece of land set aside for public utility was raided by outsiders who converted it into a quarry
They thus called on the government to shut down the activities and apprehend the investors.
Peter Chege lamented that he was forced to shut down his hotel, which cost nearly 10 million to put up.
“I had to close that hotel, and I had invested about Ksh10 million. Even the swimming pool area was covered by too much dust,” he stated.
Another resident Nancy Maero added that the dust was affecting the children in the area, forcing parents to spend a lot of money on medical services.
“Children are inhaling the dust, and we spend much time in hospital. The cost of living is high, and we cannot afford the hospital bills,” she added.
Additionally, she claimed that one of the residents passed away after developing an illness linked to the dust.
“One of us passed away because of the dust. He developed complications and died,” she added.
John Oduor, the chairman of an association of area residents, added that they had approached authorities to report the matter, but their efforts were futile.
"We spoke to the sub-county committee in charge of security, seeking its help. We have all the letters we sent.
"Last week we approached National Environment Managament Authority (NEMA) and it pledged to coordinate with an area OCS to stop the activities," he added.
NEMA and the police were yet to respond to the allegations by the time of publishing this article.
