Oil Drilling Waste Linked to Cancer Crisis in Kenya

In the remote desert village of Kargi, located in the far north of Kenya, residents are suffering from unusually high rates of digestive tract cancers, specifically affecting the esophagus and stomach. Evidence suggests a connection between these health crises and drilling waste left behind by Amoco, an American oil company now owned by BP, following a failed prospecting mission in the 1980s.

During the 1980s, Amoco crews spent five years drilling nearly a dozen wells thousands of feet deep in Kargi and the surrounding Chalbi Desert. When the project was decommissioned in 1990, the company departed without cleaning up its waste, leaving behind a dry white substance scattered near water wells used by the local population and their livestock.

Because Kargi faces extreme poverty and malnutrition, residents discovered the flaky white substance and, believing it to be natural salt, began using it to cook their food. Court records and environmental tests later identified this substance as a combination of barite and bentonite—heavy drilling chemicals used to increase fluid density and stabilize boreholes.

Environmental Contamination and Livestock Loss

The waste left by Amoco contaminated the region’s limited groundwater supply. High levels of carcinogenic toxic chemicals, specifically nitrates, seeped into the boreholes and shallow wells. Nitrates, used in drilling mud and as explosives to locate oil, can be extremely toxic to mammals, preventing blood from carrying oxygen.

The impact on livestock was severe. In the 1990s, a flock of sheep and goats died in the village of Balesa after drinking from a borehole next to an abandoned Amoco well. By the early 2000s, residents reported the death of 7,000 sheep and goats. A government water quality report conducted immediately after these mass deaths confirmed that over 600 animals died within two hours of consuming the water.

Further testing by a Swedish oil company, Lundin, found that the white clayey substance used by Amoco to cool drill bits had extremely high alkaline levels, which can be corrosive to skin. This matched accounts from former Amoco employees who recalled seeing workers’ skin peel off when handling drilling materials.

The Cancer Epidemic

By the early 2000s, the cancer rate in the Kargi community was three times the national average. Between 2006 and 2009, the local health center registered 65 cancer-related deaths—primarily throat cancer—in a population of 10,000. By 2009, local reports indicated that one community member was dying of cancer every month.

The symptoms often begin with an inability to swallow food, which sufferers describe as feeling like deep wounds have been sliced into their throats. Due to a lack of medical resources, many patients are unable to receive treatment. Kargi’s only health center is staffed by a nutritionist, a nurse, and a clinical officer, with no resident doctor.

“There is no manyatta that has not been affected by this disease.”

Gumathi Galnahgalle, village elder

The crisis gained national attention in 2013 through a documentary titled Desert of Death, which featured cancer patients as young as three years old. In 2015, Senator Godana Hargura of Marsabit informed a government hearing that he had documented approximately 150 names of those who died from the disease.

Legal Battles and Government Response

In 2020, residents of Kargi and other Chalbi Desert communities filed the first-ever lawsuit based on Kenya’s constitutional right to a safe and healthy environment. The suit targets the Kenyan national and county governments, as well as the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, alleging they failed to police Amoco’s environmental damage and ensure the proper disposal of waste oil and salt water.

As of 2026, the case remains in the court system. Legal efforts to sue BP directly have been described as too complex. While government reports from 2004 acknowledged that claims of esophageal cancer were evident everywhere the investigative team visited, official cleanup efforts have never been conducted.

The situation in Kargi reflects a broader pattern of environmental degradation linked to oil exploration in Kenya. In Turkana County, residents have filed similar cases against Tullow Oil after a 2022 study found heavy contamination in groundwater samples near oil well pads in the Lokichar Basin. More recently, Nairobi-based Gulf Energy has moved to revive dormant projects in northwestern Kenya, facing opposition from locals who intend to hold the company and regulators accountable for the region’s tainted legacy.

Neither BP nor the Kenyan government responded to repeated requests for comment regarding the pollution and health crisis in Kargi.