EFSCRJ
Today, July 4th, EF Small Centre has submitted a request for information to the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) on the death of seven contractors from KEI Construction Company which incident occurred on 9th October 2024 in the area between Esau, Sami, and Mendy Kunda in the North Bank Region.
Following the incident, NAWEC issued a press statement stating that the seven workers died as they worked on high tension cables.
NAWEC went further to state that they were cooperating with authorities to investigate the matter. More than six months now, neither NAWEC nor the other authorities informed the public of the outcome of the investigations.
As an accountability organization, we have therefore written to NAWEC to demand the investigation report for transparency and accountability in the interest of the protection of human rights. We are requesting the following information:
- The final investigative report of the incident.
- The final report on the measures taken to ensure accountability for the incident.
Our request is made in accordance with and pursuant to the Access to Information Act 2021 which obliges public bodies to “create, keep, organize and maintain its information in a manner which facilitates access to information.”
Further, the law mandates public bodies to proactively disclose information that they generated or received within 30 days.
An investigation report of this incident falls within the terms of proactive disclosure in Section 7 hence NAWEC should have shared this report well before today.
We wish to remind NAWEC that they have 21 days as per Section 14 of the Act to respond to our request, and we urge them to abide by the law.
EF Small Centre for Rights and Justice remains steadfast that public institutions must be transparent and accountable without which the protection and fulfillment of rights will be severely undermined.
2025 – The Year of Transparency and Accountability