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British energy giant BP is facing a major lawsuit from hundreds of residents in northeastern Kenya who allege that improper toxic waste disposal from historical oil exploration killed thousands of livestock and triggered a cancer crisis among locals.
The petition focuses on Kargi and Kalacha villages in Marsabit County, one of the nation’s most impoverished regions, where toxic materials reportedly contaminated critical groundwater networks.
While the oil exploration mission was conducted between 1984 and 1990 by the American firm Amoco, BP is being held legally accountable because it acquired Amoco and all its underlying liabilities in 1998.
The legal process advanced on Thursday as the petitioners’ lawyer formally served the court documents to BP via Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bypassing previous procedural objections raised by the energy company.
According to the filing, Marsabit County has endured three decades of soaring cancer rates alongside persistent livestock illnesses and deaths.
Demonstrating the severe timeline of the crisis, the plaintiffs’ attorney revealed that approximately 200 of the original petitioners have already succumbed to various forms of cancer and are now represented in court by surviving family members.
Scientific evidence cited in the court papers supports the community’s claims regarding the tainted water infrastructure.
Research conducted by the University of Nairobi discovered that nitrate levels in local drinking wells were five to 10 times higher than the maximum safety thresholds established by the World Health Organisation.
This contamination has had devastating economic and environmental consequences, including a single catastrophic event in January 2020, where an estimated 7,000 livestock died in one day after drinking from the wells.
BP has not yet publicly commented on the allegations, and the court has scheduled a hearing for June 16 to confirm the formal receipt of the lawsuit.
