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Proposals for Making Natural Resources Wealth Count in Kenya

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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 Publisher of the Year 2021 and CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021*

Natural Resources Benefit‑sharing mechanisms can be organized along two main axes: a vertical axis of benefit sharing across scales from national to local, and a horizontal axis of sharing within scales, including within and across communities, households and other local stakeholders. Free and prior informed consent of local communities and transparent and equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms can bring affected communities into the mainstream of a natural resource dominant development model. Understanding who the key stakeholders are, what their aspirations, concerns and expectations of a project are, and what drives these is important for judging the reasonableness of a benefit sharing settlement and its legitimacy and durability over time. The social and economic development is essential to enable a favourable living and working environment.

Natural Resource Management plays a key role in the conservation of the environment. Human rights remain the obligation of the state to protect and may be done through inclusive decision making processes. Therefore, while it is important for the state to promote the people’s right to benefit from their natural resources as envisaged in international and national legal and human rights instruments, this should be done within the framework of achieving sustainable development. However, it is also important for the Kenyan people to look beyond oil resources in the country and invest in innovation to boost production in other areas such as livestock and agriculture production as well as innovative business investment in creative technologies.

Foundations and Trusts

The approaches taken by Kenya towards resource management, for instance, have been through Foundations, Trusts and Funds (FTF) initiatives in the energy sector. FTF represent a wider range of financial and institutional framework that channel revenues to local communities. This mode of benefit sharing enable for the operation of government payment, compensation and community investment. The author suggests that they establish a systematic, professional formal approach to development. This has been successful in jurisdictions such as Senegal, Ghana, Australia and Canada.

Enhancing Local Accountability and Building Capacity

Communities with more control over access and better common property management regimes play stronger decision making roles. They acknowledge that land-use decision making is inherently a multilevel process since numerous actors are involved both directly and indirectly representing multiple sectors with different roles, interests and incentives. Arguably, resource funds (RF) may provide, even to a limited degree, a track record of windfalls. It has also been suggested that through CSR and social investment strategies, extractive firms can provide local socio-economic development where the government is unable or unwilling to do so, and thus may help mitigate against the potentially harmful impacts of resource-led growth. Notably, the ideal goal is for private sector development interventions to supplement government service provision, to avoid a situation of dependency on the private sector, and not to impact the willingness or ability of the state to develop its capacity. However, due to the uncertainties that come with CSR, there may be a need for a framework that is anchored in law to shield it from the uncertainties that come with CSR arrangements. This also increases accountability not only to the local communities but also the government.

Achieving Right to environmental information

Environmental information comprises of information held by authorities, factors that affect the environment, research on the environment, health and safety measures, and reports on the implementation of environmental legislation and so forth. Lack of environmental information regarding conservation and management becomes more technical in undertaking natural resource management. As far as indigenous communities are concerned, their right to information should be upheld by ensuring that any information needed is received as soon as possible. Enabling access to environmental information forms basis to access environmental justice. Communities are also likely to understand the implications of extractive industries on their day to day lives as far as the environment is concerned.

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.

Devolution and Benefit Sharing

The 2010 Constitution requires that services be devolved and both the national and county governments ensure reasonable access to its services so far as it is appropriate. Ideally, local communities should be allowed to access natural resources for them to be able to uphold their responsibilities for future generations.658 Natural resources are a source of livelihood as they from part of their economic activity. If natural resources are accessed and well managed, they provide for raw materials which are then processed to get products that are sold and thereby generating income. Allowing communities to access natural resources will undoubtedly promote sustainable development. It is important to make use of the devolved system to empower communities and build capacity through investing accrued benefits in sustainable development projects which will go beyond the lifespan of oil exploration and at the same time uplift the livelihoods of the local people. The County governments are in a better position to identify the most viable and sustainable projects.

Public participation

Public participation allows individuals to express their views on key governmental policies and laws concerning conditions in their communities. Fostering public participation will mean that authorities dispense their constitutional and legislative obligation, positive deviation in terms of contribution and motivation. In The Matter of the National Land Commission [2015] eKLR, one of the issues that the Supreme Court of Kenya had to deal with was the role and place of public participation in the administration and management of land in Kenya. Mutunga, CJ observed that public participation was a major pillar, and bedrock of democracy and good governance. The Supreme Court’s advisory opinion is an affirmation of the important role that the principle of public participation can play in enhancing people’s appreciation of the management of natural resources in the country. Apart from enhancing people’s role in management, public participation may promote co-existence among indigenous communities and allow investors to carry out their activities peacefully.

 Addressing Resource Capture Phenomenon/Corruption

It has been argued that rent-seeking models assume that resource rents can be easily appropriated hence encouraging bribes, distorted public policies and diversion of public towards favour seeking and corruption.  Corruption has been termed as a threat to protected human security. It calls for global effort to combat corruption. Resources have fostered corruption, undermined inclusive economic growth, incited armed conflict and damaged the environment. For the governments managing significant resource rents, rent appropriation may be preferable when compared to the promotion of wealth creation policies. The argument is based on the preposition that rent appropriation may dominate over wealth generation as it offers immediate economic and political gains. These gains appear quite appealing as they can, arguably, be highly personal, favouring the specific members of the ruling elite.

*This article is an extract from the Article: Securing Our Destiny through Effective Management, (2020) Journal of Conflict Management and Sustainable Development Volume 4(3), p. 1.  by Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards), ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and ADR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya). Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert in Kenya. 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 among the top 5 leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts in Kenya by the Chambers Global Guide 2022.

References

Muigua, K., “Securing Our Destiny through Effective Management,” (2020) Journal of Conflict Management and Sustainable Development Volume 4(3), p. 1.  

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

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

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Brief History of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

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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).

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Former KCB Company Secretary Sues Over Unlawful Dismissal

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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.

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