[Source: Daily Nation, by Lucy Mkanyika]
The national environmental watchdog has stopped the construction of a market on cemetery land in Taveta.
Nema has now ordered the Taita Taveta County government to conduct an environmental impact assessment before it embarks on the the Sh1.3 million stalls project in Bura Ndogo village.
Nema county coordinator Edith Kalo said the agency had issued the order to the county’s trade department.
Ms Kalo said a number of procedures were not followed before the project started.
“They must also indicate that they want to convert the cemetery into a market so the assessment report must be accompanied by a social cultural impact report,” she added.
The Nema official said county officials must also show how they will dispose of the remains exhumed during the construction of the market.
She said if the officials fail to address these issues, the authority will take measures, including seeking a court order, to stop the project.
Residents had complained that the contractor had started exhuming the remains of their relatives.
The Bura Ndogo cemetery had ran out of space before a new burial ground allocated in the 1980s.
Residents who spoke to the Nation associated cemeteries with bad omens and said they feared the project might draw calamities to the area.
However, county land executive Gertrude Shuwe said it was the traders who proposed that the market be built on the piece of land.
Ms Shuwe said a public participation forum was held before money were set aside for the project.
Bomeni Ward manager Peter Mutie, however, said the project will continue despite the opposition and that the remains will be buried nearby after a cleansing ceremony.
“We will sacrifice a sheep there to chase away any calamity before we bury the remains,” he said.
Mr Mutie warned those opposing the project that they will not succeed as the contractor was already on the site.
[Source: Daily Nation, by Lucy Mkanyika]
