The Senate’s County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee spent a full Thursday in Kwale County and learned that although verbal assurances and tidy paperwork sounded convincing, things on the ground are different. Led by Committee Chair Senator Godfrey Osotsi, alongside Senators Eddy Oketch, Agnes Kavindu, Peris Tobiko, Beth Syengo, Hamida Kibwana, William Kisang, Raphael Chimera, and George Mbugua, the visit highlighted glaring gaps in project completion and functionality.

A decade after an oil spillage from the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) devastated Thange Village, residents of Makueni County are still grappling with its devastating environmental and health consequences.

The spillage, which occurred on May 12, 2015, was attributed to a suspected leak along the Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline. While emergency teams were dispatched to contain and clean up the spill, by June 15 of the same year, petroleum traces had already contaminated the Thange River in Kibwezi East Constituency.

The Senate Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing, chaired by Senator Eddy Okech (Migori), held a comprehensive consultative meeting with the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing & Urban Development to deliberate on the status of key housing programmes, policy direction, challenges, legislative gaps, and opportunities for collaboration in the sector.

The Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare has challenged the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection over critical shortcomings in the protection of the country’s most vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities, elderly citizens in care homes and children at risk of exploitation.