Connect with us

News & Analysis

The Legal and Institutional Framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment in Kenya

Published

on

By Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD (Leading Environmental Law Scholar, Policy Advisor, Natural Resources Lawyer and Dispute Resolution Expert from Kenya), Winner of Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021, ADR Publication of the Year 2021 and CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021*

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was not always part of the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) 1999, the framework law on environmental management and conservation in Kenya. EMCA establishes among others the National Environment Management Authority as the principal institution of government charged with the implementation of all policies relating to the environment, and to exercise general supervision and coordination over all matters relating to the environment. In consultation with the lead agencies, NEMA is empowered to develop regulations, prescribe measures and standards and, issue guidelines for the management and conservation of natural resources and the environment. The Act provides for environmental protection through inter alia, Environmental impact assessment (EIA) and Environmental audit and monitoring.

While the parent Act (EMCA) was initially silent on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), the same was introduced via the Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Amendment Act 2015). The Amendment Act 2015 introduces a definition of SEA under section 2 thereof to mean a formal and systematic process to analyse and address the environmental effects of policies, plans, programmes and other strategic initiatives. The Amendment Act also amended EMCA by introducing section 57A (1) which provides that all Policies, Plans and Programmes for implementation should be subjected to Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Specifically, the Amendment Act 2015 provides that the plans, programmes and policies are (a) subject to preparation or adoption by an authority at regional, national, county or local level, or which are prepared by an authority for adoption through a legislative procedure by Parliament, Government or if regional, by agreements between the governments or regional authorities, as the case may be; (b) determined by the Authority as likely to have significant effects on the environment. Further, all entities are to undertake or cause to be undertaken the preparation of strategic environmental assessments at their own expense and should submit such assessments to the Authority for approval. The Amendment Act 2015 requires the Authority, in consultation with lead agencies and relevant stakeholders, to prescribe rules and guidelines in respect of Strategic Environmental Assessments.42

The Environmental (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003, Legal Notice No. 101 provide for SEA and interprets it to mean the process of subjecting public policy, programmes and plans to tests for compliance with sound environmental management. Regulation 42 (1) thereof obligates lead agencies in consultation with the Authority to subject all proposals for public policy, plans and programmes for environmental implementation to a strategic environmental assessment to determine which ones are the most environmentally friendly and cost effective when implemented individually or in combination with others. This has to consider the effect of implementing alternative policy actions taking into consideration: the use of natural resources; the protection and conservation of biodiversity; human settlement and cultural issues; socio-economic factors; and the protection, conservation of natural physical surroundings of scenic beauty as well as protection and conservation of built environment of historic or cultural significance. The Regulations also require the Government and all the lead agencies to incorporate principles of strategic environmental assessment in the development of sector or national policy. The content of a strategic environmental impact report are provided under Regulation 43 (1) thereof.

Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration states that environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, it states that each individual should have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. Accordingly, States are to facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. It also provides that effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, should be provided.

In light of the foregoing, Access to Information Act 2016 was enacted to, inter alia, to give effect to Article 35 of the Constitution of Kenya on the right of access to information. The Act provides that subject to the Act and any other written law, every citizen has the right of access to information held by — (a) the State; and (b) another person and where that information is required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom. The term ‘information’ is interpreted to include information which is of significant public interest due to its relation to the protection of human rights, the environment or public health and safety.

It is evident that the elements of SEA have slowly but surely found their way from international legal instruments on environmental management into national laws. This means that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can no longer be carried out as matter of choice but law. SEA is now entrenched in the environmental legal framework requiring that all their plans, policies and programmes are compliant with the international and national environmental goals for realization of the global agenda on sustainable development. In Kenya, SEA was formally recognizing in the EMCA Amendment Act 2015 which makes SEA mandatory in particular plans, policies and programmes. It is hoped that as more countries embrace SEA and integrate environmental management and national development goals, SEA will be as tool to complement EIA and even meet the shortcomings that might have existed with the use of EIA alone in environmental management.

*This is article is an extract from an article by Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards) and Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya): Muigua, K., Legal Aspects of Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Management, Available at: http://kmco.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Legal-Aspects-of-SEA-and-Environmental-Management-3RD-December-2016.pdf. Dr. Kariuki Muigua is Kenya’s foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert. Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a Senior Lecturer of Environmental Law and Dispute resolution at the University of Nairobi School of Law and The Center for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP). He has published numerous books and articles on Environmental Law, Environmental Justice Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development. Dr. Muigua is also a Chartered Arbitrator, an Accredited Mediator, the Africa Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Managing Partner of Kariuki Muigua & Co. Advocates. Dr. Muigua is recognized as one of the leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts by the Chambers Global Guide 2021. 

References

Access to Information Act, 2016, Laws of Kenya (Government Printer, Nairobi, 2016).

Birnie, P. & Boyle, A., International Law and the Environment, (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2002), p.131-132.

Brown, A.L. & Thérivel, R., ‘Effective methodologies: Principles to guide the development of strategic environmental assessment methodology,’ Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, vol. 18, No. 3, September 2000, pp. 183–189.

Constitution of Kenya, Laws of Kenya, Government Printer, Nairobi (2010).

Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act, 1999, No. 8 of 1999, Revised Edition 2015 [1999].

Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Amendment) Act, No. 5 of 2015, Laws of Kenya.

Environmental (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003, Legal Notice No. 101.

Fischer, T.B., ‘Strategic environmental assessment in post-modern times,’ Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol.23, 2003, pp.155–170.

Mutui, F.N., ‘The Development and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment (Sea) In Kenya,’ European Scientific Journal, October 2013, vol.9, No.29, pp. 165-185.

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, ‘Applying Strategic Environmental: Assessment Good Practice Guidance for Development Co-Operation,’ DAC Guidelines and Reference Series, 2006. Available at http://www.oecd.org/environment/environment-development/37353858.pdf [Accessed on 04/12/2021].

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (vol. I) / 31 ILM 874 (1992).

Sands, P., Principles of International Environmental Law, (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press,2003), pp.799-800.

Therivel, R., Strategic Environmental Assessment in Action, (Earthscan, London and VA, 2004), p. 8.

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Art. 2(6). Available at https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/RecentTexts/27_4bE.pdf assessment [Accessed on 04/12/2021].

World Bank, ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment,’ September 10, 2013, available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/brief/strategic-environmental-assessment [Accessed on 04/12/2021].

News & Analysis

The Roles of the Three Parts of the Permanent Court of Arbitration

Published

on

By

H.E. Amb. Marcin Czepelak, the Fourteenth Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

Continue Reading

News & Analysis

Brief History of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

Published

on

By

By Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, C.Arb, Current Member of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Representing the Republic of Kenya.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a 124 Years Old Intergovernmental Organization currently with 122 contracting states. It was established at the turn of 20th Century during the first Hague Peace Conference held between 18th May and 29th July 1899. The conference was an initiative of then Russian Czar Nicholas II to discuss peace and disarmament and specifically with the object of “seeking the most effective means of ensuring to all peoples the benefits of a real and lasting peace, and, above all, of limiting the progressive development of existing armaments.” The culmination of the conference was the adoption of a Convention on the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, which dealt not only with arbitration but also with other methods of pacific settlement, such as good offices and mediation.

The aim of the conference was to “strengthen systems of international dispute resolution” especially international arbitration which in the last century had proven effective for the purpose with number of successful international arbitrations being concluded among Nations. The Alabama arbitration of 1871-1872 between the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) under the Treaty of Washington of 1871 culminating in the arbitral tribunal’s award that the UK pay the US compensation for breach of neutrality during American Civil War which it did had demonstrated the effectiveness of arbitration in settling of international disputes and piqued interest of many practitioners in it as a mode of dispute resolution during the latter years of the nineteenth century.

The Institut de Droit International adopted a code of procedure for arbitration in 1875 to answer the need for a general law of arbitration governing for countries and parties wishing to have recourse to international arbitration. The growth of arbitration as a mode of international dispute resolution formed the background of the 1899 conference and informed its most enduring achievement, namely, the establishment of the PCA as the first global mechanism for the settlement of disputes between states. Article 16 of the 1899 Convention recognized that “in questions of a legal nature, and especially in the interpretation or application of International Conventions” arbitration is the “most effective, and at the same time the most equitable, means of settling disputes which diplomacy has failed to settle.”

In turn, the 1899 Convention provided for the creation of permanent machinery to enable the setting up of arbitral tribunals as necessary and to facilitate their work under the auspices of the institution it named as the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). In particular, Article 20 of the 1899 Convention stated that “[w]ith the object of facilitating an immediate recourse to arbitration for international differences which it has not been possible to settle by diplomacy, the signatory Powers undertake to organize a Permanent Court of Arbitration, accessible at all times and operating, unless otherwise stipulated by the parties, in accordance with the rules of procedure inserted in the present Convention.” In effect, the Convention set up a permanent system of international arbitration and institutionalized the law and practice of arbitration in a definite and acceptable way.

As a result, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was established in 1900 and began operating in 1902. The PCA as established consisted of a panel of jurists designated by each country acceding to the Convention with each country being entitled to designate up to four from among whom the members of each arbitral tribunal might be chosen. In addition, the Convention created a permanent Bureau, located in The Hague, with functions similar to those of a court registry or secretariat. The 1899 Convention also laid down a set of rules of procedure to govern the conduct of arbitrations under the PCA framework.

The second Hague Peace Conference in 1907 saw a revision of the 1899 Convention and improvement of the rules governing arbitral proceedings. Today, the PCA has developed into a modern, multi-faceted arbitral institution perfectly situated to meet the evolving dispute resolution needs of the international community. The Permanent Court of Arbitration has also diversified its service offering alongside those contemplated by the Conventions. For instance, today the International Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration serves as a registry in important international arbitrations. In 1993, the Permanent Court of Arbitration adopted new “Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes between Two Parties of Which Only One Is a State” and, in 2001, “Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment”.

Reference

PCA Website: https://pca-cpa.org/en/about/introduction/history/ (accessed on 25th May 2023).

Continue Reading

News & Analysis

Former KCB Company Secretary Sues Over Unlawful Dismissal

Published

on

By

Former KCB Group Company Secretary Joseph Kamau Kania who has sued the Bank for Unlawful Dismissal

Former KCB Group Company Secretary Joseph Kamau Kania has sued the lender seeking reinstatement or be compensated for illegal sacking almost three years ago. Lawyer Kania was the KCB Group company secretary until restructuring of the lender in 2021 that saw some senior executives dropped.

Through the firm of Senior Counsel Wilfred Nderitu, Kamau wants the court to order KCB Group to unconditionally reinstate him to employment without altering any of the contractual terms until his retirement in December 2025.

In his court documents filed before Employment and Labour Relations Court, the career law banker seeks the court to declare the reorganization of the company structure a nullity and amounted to a violation of his fundamental right to fair labour practices as guaranteed in Article 41(1) of the Constitution. He further wants the court to declare that the position of Group Company Secretary did not at any time cease to exist within the KCB Group structure.

He further urged the Employment Court to declare that the recruitment and appointment of Bonnie Okumu, his former assistant, as the Group Company Secretary, in relation to the contemporaneous termination of his employment, was unprocedural, insufficient and inappropriate to infer a lawful termination of his employment.

“A declaration that the factual and legal circumstances of the Petitioner’s termination of employment were insufficient and inappropriate to infer a redundancy against him, and that any redundancy declared by the KCB Group in relation to him was therefore null, void and of no legal effect and amounted to a violation of his fundamental right to fair labour practices as guaranteed in Article 41(1) of the Constitution,” seeks lawyer Kamau.

Kamau says he was subjected to discriminatory practices by the KCB Bank Group in violation of his fundamental right to equality and freedom from discrimination as guaranteed in Article 27 of the Constitution and the termination of his employment was unfair, unjustified, illegal, null and void.

Lawyer Kamau further seeks the court to declare that the Non-Compete Clause in the 2016 Contract is unenforceable by the KCB Group as against him and is voidable by him as against the Bank ab initio, byreason of the termination of the Petitioner’s employment having been a violation of Articles 41(1) and 47(1) and (2) of the Constitution, and of the Employment Act.

He also wants the Employment Court to find that finding that KCB’s group legal representation by Messrs of Mohammed Muigai LLP Advocates law firm in respect of his claim for unlawful termination of employment resulted in a clear conflict of interest by reason of the fact that a Founding and Senior Partner at the said firm lawyer Mohammed Nyaoga is also the Chairman of the CBK’s Board of Directors.

“A Declaration that the circumstances of KCB’s legal representation by Messrs. Mohammed Muigai LLP Advocates resulted in a violation of the Petitioner’s fundamental right to have the employment dispute decided independently and impartially, as guaranteed in Article 50(1) of the Constitution,” seeks lawyer Kamau.

Kamau is seeking damages against both KCB Group and Central Bank of Kenya jointly and severally for the violation of his constitutional and fundamental right to fair labour practices.

He wants  further wants court to declare that CBK is liable to petitioner on account of its breach of statutory duty to effectively regulate KCB Group to ensure that KCB complied with the Central Bank of Kenya Prudential Guidelines and all other Laws, Rules, Codes and Standards, and that, as an issuer of securities, it complied with capital markets legislation.

Kamau through his lawyer Nderitu told the court that he was involved in Shareholder engagement in introducing the Group aide-mémoire that significantly improved the management of the Annual General Meetings, including obtaining approval without voting through the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Kenya Commercial Bank Limited among others.

He said that during his employment at KCB Bank Kenya and with the KCB Group, he initially worked well with former KCB CEO Joseph Oigara until 2016 when the CEO allegedly started sidelining him by removing the legal function from his reporting line.

He further claims he was transferred from the Group’s offices at Kencom House to its offices Upper Hill under the guise that the Petitioner was merely to support the KCB Group Board.

He adds that at that point his roles were given to Okumu for reasons that were not related to work demands.  He stated that Oigara at one time proposed that he should leave his role in the KCB Group and go and serve as the Company Secretary of the National Bank of Kenya Limited, a subsidiary of the Group, a suggestion which he disagreed with to Oigara’s utter annoyance.

Kamau stated that his work was thenceforth unfairly discredited, leading to his being taken through a disciplinary process whose intended outcome failed miserably, and the Petitioner was vindicated.

“More specifically, the Petitioner contends that the purported creation of a new organizational structure towards the end of 2020 was in fact Oigara’s orchestration targeted to remove certain individuals by requiring them to undergo interviews in the pretext that new roles were created, and amounted to a further violation of the Petitioner’s fundamental right to fair labour practices under Article 41(1) of the Constitution,” said in his court documents.

He further adds that this sham reorganization demonstrates how the role of the KCB Group Company Secretary purportedly ceased to be and was then very briefly replaced with a new role of the KCB Group General Counsel. The role of KCB Group Company Secretary then ‘resurfaced’ immediately thereafter, in total violation of legal and regulatory requirements.

Continue Reading

Trending