A case at the Environment and Land Court in Isiolo involving petitioners from Marsabit County and British Petroleum (BP) Oil will wait another thirty days for the parties to agree on the procedure for the full hearing.
British Petroleum, which is the respondent in a case filed by a whistleblower over alleged environmental pollution linked to oil exploration activities, asked the court to be served with English-translated files before the proceedings could go further.
The petitioners’ attorney sought clarification on the request, which was granted thirty days by Judge Oguttu Mboya. The attorney explained that all the petitions had already been filed in English and wondered how they could be translated from English to English.
British Petroleum (BP) PLC is being accused by whistleblower Asuntah Galgitele, alongside 298 other residents, of alleged environmental pollution linked to oil exploration activities conducted in the 1980s.
Former oil exploration firm Amoco Corporation, which was later acquired by BP PLC in 1998, is accused of improperly disposing of toxic and radioactive waste during drilling operations near Kargi and Kalacha in the Chalbi Desert.
Lawyer for the petitioners, Kelvin Kubai, said in an interview that all the pleadings had been filed in English and that the request for translation “beats logic” and would delay justice, which he said had been denied to the petitioners for a long time.
Kubai said over three hundred cases had been documented involving people who had died from cancer, while the soil and water were highly contaminated. He explained that these cases were linked to the suspected contaminants.
The petitioners allege that hazardous waste contaminated underground water sources, leading to widespread illness, deaths and loss of livestock among local communities decades later.
Hilary Halkano said that cases of cancer were still spreading and referred to it as a “silent genocide,” but expressed optimism for justice since the case had reached the court.
Asuntah Galgitele said that the delay in the hearing was not justified, explaining that the respondent had been served with all the documents in English and calling for justice to be served to the petitioners
