Legislators from North Eastern Kenya have challenged the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to investigate allegations made by former presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo that the Moi regime dumped toxic waste in the region.
The MPs demand that Jirongo provides an official statement regarding his revelation that President Daniel Moi ordered toxins, including nuclear waste, to be dumped in the region, which is now associated with a high number of reported cancer cases in the North Eastern part of the country.
Led by Wajir South MP Mohammed Adoh and Tarbaj MP Hussein Abdi Bare, the MPs demanded that the DCI summon Jirongo for grilling.
‘”We want DCI to interrogate this particular leader the velocity of his sentiments- he might divulge more on what we don’t know!. Maybe that’s the reason we are experiencing many cancer patients from the region,” Barre said.
Jirongo was a close ally of Moi and worked for the former president’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) party’s youth wing, known as the Youth for Kanu 1992.
Classified Information
In his Savage Politics podcast, Jirongo revealed how his close connections with KANU bigwigs enabled him to access classified information, while also exposing him to danger. He recounted an incident where former KANU stalwart Nicholas Biwott’s lawyer, the late Jim Choge, once provided him with classified information about the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the North Eastern Province.
“I collaborated with Jim Choge, a lawyer for the late Nicholas Biwott. He visited my office and handed me documents that detailed the locations where toxic waste was being dumped in the country. Regrettably, I confronted President Daniel Moi with these documents,” narrated Jirongo.
Jirongo revelation that Nuclear Wastes were buried in Marsabit, Meru, Samburu, Isiolo and other North -eastern counties shows how the colonies still manipulated the Moi regime leaving our fellow Kenyans exposed to cancerous cells. The GoK Must do something about this. pic.twitter.com/dvFVEuL5jX
— Naipamei Kaikai (@Kaikainaipaa) April 7, 2024
Acknowledging that it was his first public disclosure on the matter, Jirongo claimed he informed Moi that officials from the Ministry of Energy had misled residents of North Eastern by claiming to explore oil deposits while disposing of hazardous waste in the region.
“I have never been in trouble like that because I was asked where I had gotten the documents. He told me that I must say where I got the documents, or it would be the end of me. I told him that you said that we should always keep secrets and that I had given him the documents as the head of state, knowing that he had the machinery to determine where they came from and whether they were true or false. I told him I was relying upon him to verify and validate the documents,” recounted the former assistant minister for lands.
Heated Argument With Moi
Jirongo claimed that the late president engaged in a heated argument with him for about 30 minutes and cautioned him never to disclose details of their conversation.
“The confrontation was intense, almost resembling a quarrel or altercation with the president. It was only after I left his office that I realized my error. I questioned myself and realized that I had confronted the individual responsible for the illegal dumping,” added Jirongo.
According to the former Lugari MP, Choge informed him that Biwott had instructed him to provide the documents with an ulterior motive.
“I later found out that the documents were given to me to prove to the head of state that I had so much information about the regime hence a threat. This would have worked against me,” Jirongo said.
