An American Company Drilled for Oil in Kenya — and Left Behind Soaring Cancer Rates

Amoco, an American oil company now owned by BP, drilled for oil in Kenya's remote Kargi village and surrounding Chalbi Desert in the 1980s, leaving behind drilling waste. This waste, which included a dry white substance containing heavy metals and carcinogens, contaminated the local water supply, leading to high levels of nitrates and arsenic. Residents, who mistakenly used the substance as salt, and their livestock began suffering from digestive tract cancers and mass animal deaths; by the early 2000s, Kargi's cancer rate was three times the national average. In 2020, residents sued the Kenyan national and county governments for failing to police Amoco's environmental damage, seeking clean water. The lawsuit, the first based on Kenya's constitutional right to a safe environment, is still proceeding through the court system six years later.