Top classified information reveals how Moi allowed foreign countries dump toxic waste in North Eastern
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Cyrus Jirongo claims he accessed classified in formation on how Moi gegime allowed foreign companies dump toxic waste in North Eastern
Cyrus Jirongo claims he accessed classified in formation on how Moi regime allowed foreign companies dump toxic waste in North Eastern.
In a shocking accusation, former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo said that the administration of former president Daniel Moi had permitted the disposal of toxic waste in the larger North Eastern Province.
This was revealed by Jirongo, the Alfa House YouTube channel’s host of the Savage Politics program, in an interview with renowned scholar Prof. P.L.O. Lumumba.
Jirongo was a close ally of Moi and worked for the former president’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) party’s youth wing, known as the Youth for Kanu 1992.
In the interview, Jirongo disclosed how his close linkage with KANU bigwigs helped him access classified information but also put him in danger.
Jirongo disclosed how former KANU stalwart Nicholas Biwott’s lawyer, the late Jim Choge, once furnished him with classified information about the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the North Eastern Province.
“I worked with Jim Choge, a lawyer for the late Nicholas Biwott. He came to my office and gave me documents detailing where toxic waste was being dumped in the country. In my stupidity, I took those documents and confronted president Daniel Moi,” narrated Jirongo.
Admitting that it was the first time he publicly spoke about the matter, Jirongo claimed that he told Moi that people from the Ministry of Energy had deceived Kenyans in North Eastern that they were exploring oil deposits, but in reality, they were dumping dangerous waste in the region.
“I have never been in trouble like that because I was asked where I had gotten the documents. He told me that I must say where I got the documents, or it would be the end of me. I told him that you said that we should always keep secrets. “I told him that I had given him the documents as the head of state, knowing that he had the machinery to determine where they came from and whether they were true or false. I told him I was relying upon him to verify and validate the documents,” the former legislator and assistant minister for lands said.
In the interview that has ignited calls for an investigation into the claims, Jirongo claimed that the late president quarrelled with him for about 30 minutes and warned him never to share details of their conversation anywhere.
“The noise was loud until it felt like I was quarrelling with or fighting the president. It was after I left the office that my eyes opened. I questioned myself and realised that I had gone to ask the person who had dumped the toxic waste about the illegality,” added Jirongo.
According to the former MP and presidential aspirant, the Energy Permanent Secretary was immediately shuffled as he conversed with the president.
According to Jirongo, Choge told him that Biwott had asked him to give him the documents with a hidden motive.
“I later found out that the documents were given to me to prove to the head of state that I had so much information about the regime hence a threat. This would have worked against me,” he said.
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The revelation has unsettled leaders of North Eastern counties, who have for years decried high cases of cancer attributed to environmental pollution and impurities in water.
Former Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow has made a public statement about Jirongo’s revelations about toxic waste dumping, calling on the government to urgently investigate the claims and bring a conclusion to the questions they have asked for decades.
“A prominent Kenyan leader, Hon Cyrus Jirongo, has revealed in a televised interview that the government authorised the dumping of hazardous toxic waste in North Eastern Kenya in the 1980s by Western firms licensed ostensibly to explore for oil. “This is a serious revelation, coming from a person who enjoyed close links with the Moi government. Leaders from the region have long suspected this and linked the huge number of cancer and other mysterious deaths in Garissa, Wajir and Marsabit regions to possible dumping of toxic waste,” Kerrow said.
According to Kerrow, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) conducted a study to establish the cause of increased cancer diagnoses and deaths in 2016 but gave generalised findings.
He called out the institution and accused it of giving generalised findings.
“As a senator from the region, I published the article below in the media in 2016 and called on the government to undertake an independent investigation urgently. No action was taken. Once again, we call on the government to order an immediate investigation by international experts.
“This is essential to locate the sites, determine the nature of the hazardous waste, and protect the environment and the residents from further damage. The government should hold the companies involved responsible, including government officials, and compensate the families of all those affected,” added Kerrow.
The situation has prompted researchers to undertake numerous studies to probe the cause of increased cancer diagnoses and deaths in Meru, Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, and Wajir counties.
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