By TWV Team
A damning report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has cast the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) into the spotlight, exposing deep cracks in Kenya’s environmental regulation system. The findings paint a troubling picture of selective licensing, weak enforcement, and the unchecked pollution of air, water, and land across the country.
At the heart of the revelations lies NEMA’s failure to enforce its own mandate. Gathungu’s review of the financial year 2022/2023 reveals that only a fraction of facilities and institutions subject to environmental regulation actually hold valid licences. The implication is stark: polluters operate freely, while citizens are denied their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment.
The health sector presents perhaps the most alarming case. Out of 2,695 Level 4 hospitals approved by the NHIF, only 32 had air quality emission licences. Even worse, just nine hospitals countrywide possessed valid waste disposal licences. This means that leading institutions, including Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral, Mbagathi, Karen Hospital, and numerous county referral facilities, are running incinerators without regulatory approval. The result is unmonitored toxic emissions directly affecting patients, staff, and neighbouring communities.
The report also uncovered glaring gaps in industrial oversight. While air quality licences are a legal requirement, major cement manufacturers such as Athi River Mining and East African Portland operate without them. In the telecommunications sector, only Safaricom PLC is licensed for emissions from its generators, leaving questions as to why other telcos have escaped scrutiny.
Another troubling anomaly is in plastic bag regulation. A review of plastic user applications found 18 manufacturers listed in the forms who were not on NEMA’s approved register. This loophole may have facilitated the silent return of banned plastic bags, undermining the 2017 prohibition and flooding the market with illegal products.
Equally disturbing are the figures on effluent discharge. Out of 85 registered water and sewerage companies, only 10 hold valid licences. This suggests untreated waste may be finding its way into rivers and waterways, posing severe public health risks.
In waste management, the Authority collected KSh 31.6 million in licensing fees, yet entire counties – including Busia, Kakamega, Nyamira, Siaya, Vihiga, Trans Nzoia, Kericho, Lamu, Narok, Nyeri, Meru, and Garissa – reported no licensed waste transporters or disposal sites. For millions of residents, this translates into unregulated dumping in open fields and rivers.
The Auditor General concludes that NEMA has failed to live up to its statutory responsibility, allowing polluters to continue business as usual. The selective licensing points to either systemic incompetence or deliberate negligence, with corruption and favouritism remaining unspoken possibilities.
Kenya’s environmental framework is strong on paper, but without impartial enforcement, it remains toothless. As Gathungu warns, the current regime denies Kenyans the fundamental right to ambient air, safe waste disposal, and protection from hazardous pollution.
Unless urgent reforms are undertaken, the cost will be borne not by polluters, but by ordinary citizens – breathing toxic air, drinking contaminated water, and living amid unchecked waste.
