NAIROBI, Kenya – Ten years after oil seeped into the heart of Thange village, the pain hasn’t stopped flowing.
What began as a pipeline leak in May 2015 has evolved into a long-running public health and environmental disaster — one that’s claimed lives, poisoned water, and turned once-fertile farms into barren ground.
Now, a Senate committee is stepping in.
During a fact-finding mission this week, the Senate Standing Committee on Energy ordered a fresh cleanup of the Thange River and demanded immediate action to protect residents still reeling from the aftermath.
Senator Oburu Odinga, who chairs the committee, said residents must first be supplied with safe drinking water — not later, now.
“Clean and sufficient drinking water for the people of Thange is non-negotiable,” he declared during the visit.
For the people living along this oil-stained stretch of Makueni County, it’s been a decade of slow-moving tragedy.
Locals blame the contamination for a surge in kidney failure, heart disease, and even cancer-related deaths.
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr described the crisis as “ongoing,” noting that the oil penetrated more than 15 feet into the ground and continues to affect both soil and water quality.
“The aftermath is still claiming lives,” he said.
Residents say they’ve had to abandon their farms and buy vegetables from nearby towns like Wote because their soil is no longer arable and their water, they suspect, is tainted with lead.
Some shared stories of family members dying after years of unexplained illnesses — all believed to be linked to the spill.
In a petition to the Senate, local MCA Erick Musyoki Katumo outlined the full extent of the devastation: poisoned land, lost livelihoods, and untreated trauma.
And the frustration is palpable.
Senators sharply criticized the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) and the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) for what they called a long-standing failure to fix the problem.
“We’ve seen it ourselves — the spill site is still contaminated,” the Senator said. “KPC must take responsibility. This isn’t just the governor’s problem.”
KPC, for its part, defended its track record.
It told the Senate that it had compensated 342 households to the tune of Sh38 million and had even offered to drill a borehole.
But internal disputes between villages over the borehole’s location reportedly stalled the project.
KPC also claimed it had conducted ongoing remediation using both internal and external experts for over three years.
Meanwhile, Nema had issued a decommissioning notice in April 2025 after test results reportedly showed no more hydrocarbons in the soil or water.
That decision may now be reversed.
Nema Director General Mamo Mamo, who joined the Senate team on-site, admitted that new evidence shows the contamination may be ongoing.
“We will relook at the entire matter,” Mamo said. “There is no way we can allow citizens to continue using water in this state.”
The 2015 oil spill, traced to a leak in the Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline, had already contaminated the Thange River by June of that year.
Emergency response teams were deployed, but by then, the damage had seeped deep — literally and figuratively.
Ten years later, Thange residents are still waiting for justice, clean water, and answers.
The Senate’s involvement may be the strongest sign yet that something will finally be done.
But in a village where people still boil store-bought water and walk miles for fresh produce, hope has been slow to return.
And if the leaders’ tough talk are anything to go by, the clean-up may finally move faster than the crude that poisoned it all in the first place.
