Questions are now being raised as to whether the Parliamentary Environmental & Natural Resources Committee investigating the rampant pollution allegations against the London Distillers of Kenya (LDK) has been compromised.
The business Moghuls who own the distillery that has been hitting the headlines in the past few months is said to have been secretly meeting some senior members of the committee chaired by Kareke Mbiuki to compromise them to protect and cover up their illicit activities.
An insider source said: “The aim of this compromise is to manipulate and doctor the report from the investigations the committee conducted so that LDK comes out clean to continue polluting the environment with impunity.”
The source who declined to be named for personal security reasons said part of the plan was to recommend that the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) officials who cleared Erdemann Properties Ltd to construct Great Wall Garden estate apartments in Athi River be investigated and prosecuted.
“This among other recommendations the MPs want to manipulate and doctor is geared at covering up the LDK bosses who are clearly highly connected to top officials in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government,” he said.
The Committee instituted investigations into the LDK’s rampant environmental pollution activities from its distillery factory in Athi River town after Erdemann Properties Ltd filed a petition to the National Assembly detailing how LDK was discharging raw untreated industrial waste into the environment.
The other was the gross discharges of industrial emissions into the atmosphere – all these which were both dangerous to human life, but also domestic animals, wildlife and bird life that were exposed to this discharges.
The committee intervened after LDK had repeatedly disobeyed closure orders from NEMA by the defiant Managing Director of LDK Mohan Galot who was forced to appear before the committee to defend himself.
The allegations of committee being compromised come in the wake when the 11th Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture was compromised by sugar imports barons to doctor their investigations report that was a direct result of a petition by Western Development Initiative Association (WEDIA) to salvage the sugar industry from imminent collapse.
It has since emerged that even after doctoring the original report of its true findings, the committee went ahead to hide the report for months on end until when the Speaker of the National Assembly, Justin Muturi was forced to demand for its tabling – hence the extreme mess into which the sugar industry has been reduced to.
As that was happening the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), chaired by the then Budalangi Member of Parliament Ababu Namwamba was being hounded by the National Assembly for failing to discharge its duties after being compromised – the committee was eventually dissolved in disgrace.
The focus is now on the Speaker of the National Assembly to move with speed and intervene to stop these rogue MPs from executing their selfish interests which may soil the good name of Parliament.
