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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.

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...

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...