Kenyan Mother and activist Wins Goldman Prize for Anti-Lead Protest After Her Own Breast Milk Made Baby Sick

Phyllis Omido, dubbed the “East African Erin Brockovich”, is a Kenyan environmental activist.She was one of 6 people to be awarded the Goldman environmental prize in 2015.

In the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, Phyllis Omido knew that industry could pose a danger to the surrounding communities. She’d worked on environmental impact assessment reports for several factories.

But when her 2 1/2-year-old son, King David, got sick with a mysterious condition, it didn’t occur to her that it might be from environmental toxins. He had a high fever that wasn’t responding to medication. He couldn’t sleep. He was plagued with diarrhea, and his eyes became runny. He spent two weeks in the hospital, and still no one could figure out what was wrong.

“The doctors had failed to find malaria, typhoid, the normal diseases they usually test for,” Omido says. A colleague who was visiting her in the hospital asked about lead exposure. At the time Omido was working as an office administrator for EPZ Refinery in Mombasa, which melted down used car batteries and sold the scrap lead for export.

“That was the first time it crossed my mind that maybe it could be lead poisoning,” she says. And it turned out she was right.

When King David got sick, she was still breast-feeding him. Most days his baby sitter would bring him to her office at lunchtime. He’d also come by in the evening, she says, “When the lady left for her home, she’d drop him at the office.”

After she got his diagnosis, she felt guilty.

“It was very heartbreaking for me,” the 36-year-old single mother says, “because I felt like I was the one who’d made him sick.” While her breast milk could have contained lead, it’s also possible there was lead in the air and dirt around their home

The annual Goldman prize highlights the work of community activists and comes with a $175,000 award

Ms Omido’s campaign is not over as she now wants to use the prize money to take the government to court to ensure that the area is cleaned up in line with the constitutional commitment to provide a safe environment for Kenyan citizens

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