The Senate Oversight Committee has sounded alarm over the discharge of untreated sewerage into River Nyando from the Ahero drainage system, a multi‑million‑shilling climate resilience project funded under the World Bank‑backed Financing Locally‑Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) programme.
During an inspection tour of Kisumu County, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget raised concern that the drainage infrastructure, which was designed to mitigate flooding in Ahero, was instead channelling raw effluent into the river, creating what lawmakers described as a major environmental and public health hazard.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said the Committee witnessed raw sewer flowing through a stone‑pitched tunnel directly into River Nyando, warning that the situation amounted to an environmental emergency. “I have seen in Ahero one of the projects that was meant to contain flood water; a tunnel has been dug, it has been stone‑pitched, and raw sewer is draining into the River Nyando. It is a medical, environmental emergency, completely contrary to what FLLoCA was coming here to achieve,” Khalwale said.
He directed the Kisumu County Government to urgently rectify the issue and stop the discharge of untreated sewerage into fresh water sources.
Khalwale cautioned that continued release of effluent could expose residents to disease outbreaks while also threatening aquatic life and livelihoods dependent on the river and Lake Victoria, where Nyando drains.
Committee Chairperson Ali Ibrahim Roba explained that the Senate team was in Kisumu as part of its constitutional oversight mandate to assess whether projects funded through public and donor resources were delivering value for money. He said the inspection focused on project implementation, suitability, and community impact. “Our objective is only to assess whether the projects have taken place, the value for money, fitness for purpose, and to find out whether there is ownership from the locals,” Roba noted.
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The senators revealed that they had identified several concerns touching on project design and implementation during the inspection exercise, though they declined to issue a final verdict before reviewing additional documentation requested from the County Government. Roba emphasized that the Senate was keen on ensuring that resources allocated to counties were utilised prudently and strictly for their intended purpose. “We aim to ensure that we protect devolution at the national level, by way of fighting for resource allocation, as well as exercise oversight to protect devolution from itself,” he said.
The projects under review are jointly financed by the World Bank and the Kisumu County Government under the FLLoCA programme, with the sampled initiatives estimated to cost about Sh300 million.
The Committee said a final report will be prepared and tabled before the Senate after reconciling county documents with findings from the field assessment.
By Fredrick Odiero
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