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The Applicability of ADR and TDRMs in Resolving Natural Resources Conflicts

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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.*

ADR Mechanisms and Traditional Dispute Resolution Mechanisms (TDRMs) are arguably more appropriate in enhancing access to justice as they allow the public to participate in the managing of their conflicts. This way less disputes will get to the courts and this will lead to a reduction of backlog of cases. Natural resource based conflicts are unique as they involve people’s lives. Left to escalate, suffering and death may be the undesirable result. The ADR conflict management mechanisms have certain advantages that make them suitable for use in resolution of natural resource based conflicts. For example, the mechanisms that allow for maximum party autonomy such as negotiation, conciliation and mediation are cost effective flexible, informal and leave room for parties to find their own lasting solutions to problems. They are thus particularly suitable for the resolution of natural resource based conflicts.

With the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya, the law makers created an opportunity for exploring the use of ADR mechanisms and TDRMs in managing natural resource based conflicts. TDRMs include informal mediation, negotiation, problem-solving workshop, council of elders, consensus approaches among others. It has been observed that where traditional community leadership was strong and legitimate it had positive impacts in promoting local people’s priorities in natural resource management. Indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contribute to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment. Negotiation and mediation have more value to the local communities than just being means of conflict management. At least, they are means of sharing information and participating in decision-making. The two mechanisms have the unique and positive attributes which include their participatory nature that can be used to manage natural resource based conflicts and ensure that Kenyans achieve sustainable development.

Furthermore, the affected communities, in cases of decision making, can have guaranteed and meaningful participation in the decision making process by presenting proof and reasoned arguments in their favour, as tools for obtaining a socio-economic justice. The Rio Declaration in Principle 10 emphasises the importance of public participation in environmental management through access to justice thus: “Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level.… Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided. Participatory approaches have been increasingly advocated as effective decision-making processes to address complex environment and sustainable development issues.

Involving communities in identifying and eliminating processes and activities that are likely to endanger the environment is recommended since communities are conscious of such activities that can compromise their livelihoods. This may be informed by the principle of subsidiarity, where, arguably, the local communities are the best placed to address the burning environmental issues such as pollution, degradation and overutilization. They only need technical support from the Government and through collaboration, they can come up with lasting solutions. The Government efforts as evidenced by bodies such as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission should actively involve communities in addressing natural resource based conflicts in the country.

While acknowledging that negotiation and mediation may not provide holistic solutions to the problem, they can still be used in tandem with other methods of conflict management to address problem of natural resource based conflicts in Kenya. However, even where the use of ADR and TDRMs mechanisms is contemplated, there barely exists effective framework to oversee their utilization. There is need to actualize the use of ADR and particularly negotiation and mediation in managing natural resource based conflicts as envisaged in the Constitution. ADR is not fully utilized in the Kenyan context. Therefore, the attributes of cost effectiveness, party autonomy, flexibility, amongst others, are hardly taken advantage of in the environmental arena. There is need to ensure that there is put in place a framework within which communities are actively involved in achieving peace for sustainable development.

Despite the need for ADR as a potential for resolving natural resource based conflicts, access to justice through litigation is, however, also a potent remedy when access to environmental information or public participation has been wrongly denied or is incomplete. It guarantees citizens the right to seek judicial review to remedy such denial and/or depravation. It is also contended that the community also needs the authority of the state to strengthen its ability to deal with large and powerful external interests, such as multinational corporations. This is why there is need for the informal conflict mechanisms to work in synergy with the formal systems to ensure that the parties engage constructively. For instance, it has been observed that national legal systems may carry with them the following strengths: use of official legal systems strengthens the rule of State law, empowers civil society and fosters environmental accountability; they are officially established with supposedly well-defined procedures; they take national and international concerns and issues into consideration; they involve judicial and technical specialists in decision-making; where there are extreme power imbalances among the disputants, national legal systems may better protect the rights of less powerful parties because decisions are legally binding; and decisions are impartial, based on the merits of the case, and with all parties having equity before the law. There is therefore a need for the authorities to promote synergistic application of litigation, ADR and TDRMs in managing conflicts for sustainable development in Kenya.

*This article is an extract from the Article “Managing Environmental Conflicts through Participatory Mechanisms for Sustainable Development in Kenya” 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., “Managing Environmental Conflicts through Participatory Mechanisms for Sustainable Development in Kenya,” Available at: http://kmco.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/ 2018/08/Managing-Environmental-Conflicts-through-Participatory-Mechanisms-for-Sustainable-Development-in-Kenya-Kariuki-Muigua-August-2018.pdf (accessed 22 April 2022).

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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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