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Admirable Women
@admirablewomen.bsky.social

Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido is known as the “East African Erin Brockovich.” Her multi-year fight against toxic lead pollution from a battery smelter transformed her from a plant employee into one of #Africa’s leading environmental justice advocates.

474 reposts1.5K likes

Diaspora2022
@diaspora2022.bsky.social

What I would pay… (a lot) To do a weekend’s “no holds barred” pub crawl… In the BLISTERINGLY witty, funny & ‘piquant’ company of those two SHEROS! In Dublin 😉

george-1788pow
@george-1788pow.bsky.social

I do not know if Polly Higgins ever met Phyllis Omido, but it was around the time Phyllis Omido began her activism that Scottish barrister tried to petition the UN-Law Commission to include ecocide as an international crime under the ICC. Two women taking on global corporate power.

Admirable Women
@admirablewomen.bsky.social

After her infant son was poisoned by lead, Omido quit her job to protect her community. She gathered evidence of a widespread public health crisis caused by the plant’s emissions. In 2009, she founded the Centre for Justice, Governance & Environmental Action. She mobilized community protests and...

Admirable Women
@admirablewomen.bsky.social

engaged in aggressive litigation to demand the plant's closure. Her grassroots pressure succeeded & the toxic smelter was permanently shut down in January 2014. Her activism came w/a high personal cost including violent intimidation, physical assaults, & arbitrary arrests by authorities...

Admirable Women
@admirablewomen.bsky.social

trying to protect corporate interests. Undeterred, her legal advocacy has successfully led to the closure of 17 other toxic waste & industrial sites across #Kenya. + 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize + 2023 Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize") #SocialJustice #EnvironmentalJustice