The National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) has closed down three filling stations in Bungoma County for non-compliance. Speaking to The Weekly Vision while on an inspection at Chwele market on Thursday, Bungoma County NEMA director Vincent Mahiva announced the initiative after realizing that a good number of the filling stations in Bungoma County were non-compliant.
Mr Mahiva cautioned those who are still defying the authority’s order that their days are numbered. “The people who are locked up in police cells have disturbed me for a long time, this time around they will feel the full force of the law,” Mahiva said, adding that they will be arraigned in Courton Friday. In addition, Mr Mahiva noted that the three filling stations that were closed include; the Manoah filling station in Mayanja market, Kanduyi Constituency, Mteremko in Bungoma Town and Junction Filling Station in Chwele in Kabuchai.
He says that this week the operation targets filling stations to ensure that they comply with the authority’s requirements adding that after being tight on abattoir owners they have now complied. “We are not harassing everybody but only saying that business operators should comply with the government’s requirements,” Mr Mahiva noted.
Boda boda riders at Chwele market led by Fred Sitati called on those operating filling stations to comply with the NEMA requirements saying that it has negatively affected their operations. Sitati slammed some filling stations for running rogue businesses and selling fuel at illegal prices.
“If you compare these filling stations with others, they are exploiting us, they sell less fuel per litre compared to other filling stations,” Sitati said. He called on President William Ruto to start what he promised during the campaigns saying that life is very unbearable to many Kenyans. “We are asking President Ruto to come and install a new factory at Nzoia Sugar as he promised us, it will create employment for us, we are learned but jobless,” he said.
By Brown Wafula
