Coal in Kenya: directory

Directory of content on this Medium blog

Click here to see all this content by topic: Kitui coal mining, Lamu coal plant, media coverage, UNESCO, etc.

Status updates:

• Nov 2020: Chinese bank ICBC withdraws financing from Lamu coal plant
• Nov 2020: Kenya coal mining status update: Kitui plans move forward
• Consolidated updates: August 2020, also Kenya Covid update, May 2020
• deCOALonize coalition newsletters: Jan-June 2020, July-Dec 2020
• July 2021: UNESCO World Heritage Committee issues decision that does not fully reflect the UNESCO mission report, which called for cancellation of coal plant, warns Lamu’s cultural heritage is in danger (report here, overview of UNESCO and Lamu, June 2020)

More specific updates:

• Media coverage: first half 2021, 2020, second half of 2019, first half of 2019, late 2018 to early 2019, March to May 2018, October 2017
• Energy sector update (July 2020)
• Status of engagement with investors in Lamu coal plant (July 2020)
• Specific media coverage: Coverage of 26 June 2019 NET ruling, Coverage of 12 June anti-coal protests in Nairobi, Videos: News and opposition voices 2016 to 2017, Lamu coal plant news coverage, 2014–2017

Kenya coal background…

General:

• Short history of attempted coal development in Kenya
• Mbuyuni residents suffer effects of toxic clinker from cement company in Kwale: first instance of Kenyans experiencing coal ramifications firsthand
• Acronyms related to Kenya coal

Kitui coal mining:

• Overview, community efforts, potential consequences
• Official coordinates for Mui Basin coal mining
• Plans for possible 1000MW Kitui coal plant
• Powerful 2015 court ruling in the public interest regarding Kitui coal mining
• Selected media reports on proposed coal mining in Kitui
• Governor Charity Ngilu: Kitui coal mining’s loudest champion
• Parliament: Report on Public Petition regarding Coal Mining Activities in Mui, Kitui County, July 2019, response to community request for updates

Lamu coal plant:

• Brief on project plans, status, actors
• The most detailed overview of problems with project’s design and planning is this complaint filed to IFC CAO by Save Lamu, Kwasasi Mvunjeni Farmers Self-Help Group, Accountability Counsel (Kiswahili version here) (April 2019)
• China’s roles in Lamu coal plant: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), state-owned enterprise contractors PowerChina and China Huadian Corporation (CHD), Chinese government, and community efforts to engage and appeal to them
• Expert report: Air quality modelling for Lamu coal plant “Lamu coal plant will lead to deaths” from Greenpeace experts
• Expert analysis: Marine environment consequences of Lamu plant from
  Dr David Obura on the principal marine environmental concerns
• Land and resettlement issues with Lamu coal plant as of 2018, but see above 2019 IFC complaint on farm destruction and displacement of 100+ farmer households in Kwasasi due to road construction at the intended coal plant site
• Interactive map using official government coordinates for Lamu coal plant & LAPSSET Corridor Project + more detailed aerial images available
• About the Al Shabab attack on US military base in Lamu County on 4 January 2020

Opposition to Kenya coal industry development

Growing, sustained local opposition to Lamu coal plant and Kitui coal mining from affected community groups, Kenyan public interest groups, economists, energy experts, and many others:

• Main coalition site decoalonize.org and deCOALonize twitter feed
• Save Lamu’s original letter: Stop the coal plant
• Speech by deCOALonize board member and Lamu native Samia Omar Bwana at Financing the Future: Global Divest-Invest Summit, September 2019
• In trying to inform their community, Save Lamu has faced intimidation, harassment, and interference: summary with sources, reporting and direct firsthand accounts
• Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (very active in community but less info online)
• Early examples of global opposition to Lamu coal plant

Kenya coal litigation and legal matters

• deCOALonize press release: National Environmental Tribunal cancels licence for proposed Lamu Coal Plant (26 June 2019)
• Media Coverage of NET judgment cancelling Lamu coal plant ESIA licence
• Overview of key legal proceedings, from June 2017 to March 2019. The ruling had been expected on 8 May, but it was postponed that day, until June 26, when it was delivered
• Detailed account of NET hearings and related events in Lamu (site visit) 11–12 May 2017
• Powerful ruling in the public interest in the matter of Kitui coal mining, 18 September 2015 (as linked above as well)
• A helpful case study on the laws and international guidelines that Lamu coal plant is breaking, or would break if built, vis a vis China’s Green Credit Guidelines, from Friends of the Earth (English or Chinese/Mandarin)

Directly related legal matters

• The ongoing attempted brazen gutting of Kenya’s environmental law, and its most powerful tool to prevent irrevocable harm, and environment and community advocates’ struggle to save it: Status of EMCA amendment, 2017 to date
• Guide on the Basics of Environmental Impact Assessments in Kenya (from Save Lamu’s litigators, Katiba Institute)
• On the high potential of climate change litigation in Kenya
• Analysis: Why Environmental Impact Assessment Fails in Kenya

Selected original and official documents

1. Lamu coal plant Project ESIA, stunning VAT exemption documents, energy sector reports, letters to financiers, and many other documents at decoalonize.org.
2. decoalonize.org also has the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and government Letter of Support (LoS) for Lamu coal plant. The PPA and LoS were were originally from official website https://pppunit.go.ke/ (select disclosure portal, projects, select Lamu coal project, ignore empty page, download all project documents, look inside that folder). By May 2019 the Disclosure Portal was taken down. By June 2019 the entire PPPUnit.go.ke website was taken down. From 2019 to 2020, a copy was still visible at the staging site for PPPUnit, but as of late 2020 its domain appears to have expired. In 2021 the PPPUnit website was revamped, but it is missing the project pipeline information. As of September 2021, the website states, “Our Project Pipeline is being updated and will be published by the end of June 2021.”
3. Kenyan government’s most recent Least Cost Power Development Plan. Summarised with a link to main document, which was taken off the ERC website. This 2017–2037 plan supersedes all previous LCPDPs, and predicts that Lamu coal plant would create an oversupply of electricity.

Kenya aims for 100% renewable energy, and how to get there

1. Geothermal energy and Kenya
2. President Kenyatta’s repeated statements on this goal (coming soon)
3. Kenya-specific peer-reviewed academic research: Sustainable Low-Carbon Expansion for the Power Sector of an Emerging Economy: The Case of Kenya
4. Kenya-specific peer-reviewed academic research: CAN KENYA SUPPLY ENERGY WITH 100% RENEWABLE SOURCES?
5. Africa-wide: AfDB and UNEP: Green energy will bolster Africa’s economic development
6. Global: Renewable energy sources could be cheaper than fossil fuels within 10 years — UN-backed report