Waste Water Pollution in Nairobi, Kenya

Quesions Shareholders never had the opportunity to ask at the Annual Shareowners Meetings

Since a group of angry residents of Nairobi, Kenya, led by a local businessman, could not be here, we want to raise some concerns, which they recently communicated to us at the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, in a series of emails. Let me just quote the core of their emails:

"I have just discovered your website and the campaign against Coca-Cola. I live near the main Coca-Cola bottling plant in Nairobi, Kenya. For some time I have been intrigued to know why the plant produces so much noxious liquid effluent that is really making our lives unbearable. Now I know why. Coca-Cola bottling plants are great polluters.

"We'll talk more about this. We need all the help we can get, in terms of publicity, to either get the plant shut down or ordered to stop discharging noxious liquid effluent in the open. The city authorities don't seem keen to act, the Environmental Management Authority likewise. We need pressure to be exerted from external sources as the kind of campaign you lead is not common in Kenya.

"In Nairobi, Kenya, the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Embakasi, a stone's throw away from the international airport, discharges its liquid effluent into the open. This has been going on for several years, creating a massive wetland of noxious effluent. The wetland has created a perennial river of blackish effluent, which flows down to the Ngong River several kilometres away, passing by heavily populated residential estates. Nobody seems able to get the Coca-Cola bottling plant to stop discharging effluent into the open. The city authorities are aware. The environmental regulatory and management agency is aware. The effluent discharge goes on unhindered.

"Please make the point at the AGM. These guys are making millions and throwing the waste water in our faces!"

Is this a replay of what the Company has been doing in India, El Salvador, Mexico, Paw Paw, Michigan and elsewhere, destroying and polluting water resources? People in Nairobi don't want to wait any longer before this problem, highly detrimental to their health, is corrected. What's your answer?

For more information, contact Kamau Kaniaru in Nairobi at Kamau.Kaniaru@gmail.com.