Proposed Kitui coal mining
Status
Coal mining development has been actively pursued by the Kitui County government, and in particular Governor Charity Ngilu. Community coal mining opponents in Kitui cite serious human rights concerns including the health effects of coal mining and the displacement of community members, including women with informal land tenure rights. Plans for a 960MW coal plant in Kitui also appear in government planning documents.
A successful public interest lawsuit (2012–2015) stalled initial coal mining projects for several years. In 2019, largely still in the dark regarding plans, Kitui community members petitioned Parliament regarding the coal mining plans. In response, in July 2019, Parliament issued a report.
In early 2020, coal mining was included in the controversial Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), for which a caravan of rallies is proceeding around the country. The benefits of coal mining were extolled by government officials and business leaders at the rally in Kitui.
If developed, coal mining in Kitui, Kenya, could provide a domestic supply of coal, for domestic processing or for export. Government officials sold a potential coal mining industry in Kitui as a source of cheaper energy, not subject to fluctuations in international fuel prices, that would help the country achieve its industrialisation plan, Vision 2030, by providing a “baseload power source in order to produce cement, steel and electricity to industrialize into a middle-income nation by 2030.”
However, Kitui coal would be of low calorific value and correspondingly low price, require a significant investment in new transportation infrastructure and/or coal processing capacities, take at least six years to be developed (from when the effort would begin), and be subject to the fluctuations of an overall diminishing international coal market.
From Kenya’s Energy Act 2019:
Nascent mining sector in Kenya
Kenya’s mining industry is still early in its development. Throughout its history, Kenya conducted minimal extractives mining. Following the passing of a mining law in 1940, there was little activity through independence until the 2000s, according to Oxford Business Group.
In the 2000s, and particularly in the 2010s, the mining industry underwent significant expansion, with new investments in prospecting and new discoveries of rare earth materials, as well as coal (as detailed below). New legislation, the Mining Bill of 2013, was passed, creating new structures and institutions in the sector, including the Ministry of Mining. However, as of 2020, mining still remains a small fraction of the GDP.
Likely effects of coal mining on community
Kitui coal mining, which would be open cast, would not only cause the displacement of 100,000 local Kitui residents (mostly farmers), but also cause considerable pollution, profoundly change the topography of the ground, disrupt the fragile ecosystem in the area, and distort, disfigure, and scar the landscape of the area. The mining could also contaminate the supply of ground water, disrupt flows of water, and harm local flora and fauna.
“Coal mining opponents in Kitui cite serious human rights concerns that mining would displace communities and rob residents, particularly women, of their informal land tenure rights.” With significant questions over land compensation and ownership rights, potential coal mining developers defer to the government, while the National Land Commission and Kitui County government each refer the matter to the other.
Local community group CHRCE is undergoing land rights exercises and mapping efforts to delineate residents’ rights in advance of potential coal mining.
“Although the Benefit Sharing Environment (BSA) for Mui Coal Basin provides for the resettlement plan that follows the World Bank principles on involuntary resettlement, it actually doesn’t give clear and detailed terms regarding access to food, clean water and a healthy environment and post–resettlement.”
According to the Kenyan government’s own power development plan (LCPDP), “Coal mining, in particular open pit as planned for Mui basin, has strong environmental and social impacts. The mining will require large scale resettlement plans. Further, mining will produce considerable pollution. The local coal are of lower quality compared to imported coal from South Africa with regard to content of energy, ash, moisture and sulphur. Due to its widespread deposits, production experience as well as relatively low costs, coal is an important fuel option for expansion planning but the negative environmental impacts has to be factored in.”
Economic viability?
Significant questions remain regarding the economic viability of developing coal mining in Kitui. In addition to wildly fluctuating international coal prices, a downward trend in coal financing and development globally, and the lower quality of Kitui coal, to evacuate coal for processing or export, a Kitui coal mining industry would require an extended railway to transport the coal to the coast. An extension to Lamu would cost USD $2.8 billion (290 billion KES), according to Lamu coal plant’s official ESIA estimates, making the railway extension more expensive than the estimated cost of building either Kitui or Lamu coal plant itself.
Exploration and discovery of coal in Kitui
The coal-rich Mui Basin of Kitui, an area of about 500 square kilometres traditionally primarily an area of small-scale agriculture, is located about 270km east of Nairobi.
In 2000, the Ministry of Energy began prospecting for coal in the Mui (and Mutitu) Basin in Mwingi and Kitui districts, according to reporting at the time (e.g. Ministry Prospects For Coal by Odhiambo Orlale, The Nation, November 19, 2000).
In 2010, the discovery of coal in Kitui was announced. According to the county government, “The Mui — Zombe Basin is thought to have one of Africa’s richest coal deposits estimated at about 400 million metric tonnes and worth over Kshs. 3.5 trillion.”
In another estimate from the national Ministry of Energy, “the Mui Basin has an estimated one billion tonnes of coal, valued at $75 billion, and which can produce 5,000MW of electricity” — precisely the amount of an ambitious government plan for the energy sector at that time.
In June 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and Ministry of Energy gazetted the setting aside of land in Mwingi and Kitui districts, designating it as a “coal resources area” and specifying coordinates and area covered.
For the purpose of coal mining development, the basin was sub-divided into Zombe, Kabati, Itiko, Mutito, Yoonye, Kateiko, Isekele and Karunga sub-basins (Reuters).
In 2011, two concessions were granted. The mining contract for the first coal blocks C and D, about half the area, were awarded to Chinese investors Fenxi Mining Company. In 2015 four companies were prequalified to submit bids on Blocks A and B. “Another Chinese company, HCIG Energy Investment Company with Liketh Investments Kenya Ltd won rights to develop the rest of the area and coal fired plant in 2015.”
Kitui community knowledge of coal mining
“It all started around 2013 when there were lorries streaming into our villages with Chinese and Africans drivers. We later heard from stories that there was something called coal underground and it was going to be drilled. We were also told that this coal was closer above the ground and it would take the whole community to vacate their lands for its extraction. We sat down and asked amongst ourselves: if this coal will make us be forcefully evicted, where will we go? What will happen to us? What about our families and clans? And were they going to move us with our living dead? And our ancestors?” said Elizabeth Munjiru, a community leader, in 2017.
Community struggle to obtain basic information about coal mining plans
- In 2011, a stakeholders workshop was held with 300 representatives from the local Kitui community, to discuss potential coal mining.
- In 2012, Kitui residents petitioned Parliament to make public a report on the multi-billion-shilling coal mining project in Kitui. Residents “wanted the report on the government’s preparedness for the mining project and the suitability of the Chinese firm awarded the concession to mine the coal made public.”
- In October of 2012, the African Development Bank, through its African Legal Support Facility, provided technical and advisory support to Kitui coal mining efforts, to (i) review existing mineral and hydrocarbon-related contracts and agreements, and (ii) advise the government on current and future contract negotiations, including with Fenxi Coal Mining company.
- In 2012, despite intimidation, concerned community members fought an ultimately successful public interest lawsuit against one planned coal mining project. The cases were consolidated from Constitutional Petition Nos 305 of 2012 and 34 of 2013 & 12 of 2014, formerly Nairobi Constitutional Petition 43 of 2014.
- While the detailed 2015 judgment found in favour of the public interest, and the original petitioners, the matter was dismissed without any orders.
- In 2018 and 2019, government officials including Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu continued to pledge that they are moving forward with plans for coal mining, but provided few details. In April 2018, Governor Ngilu announced that residents would be relocated to make way for coal mining development.
- In February 2019, still largely in the dark, local Kitui residents submitted a parliamentary inquiry, a Petition to Parliament.
- In July 2019, a Parliamentary report was issued in response, following a brief visit.
Community concerns
In their 2019 petition to Parliament, petitioners noted that they “are longtime residents of Mui (since time immemorial) majority of whom are peasant farmers, that after coal was discovered the government decided to relocate them, that mineral rights were given away without following due process of law (involving the community!), that the community has never given consent for mining in accordance with section 37(1) of the Mining Act.”
“If they are to be relocated as the Governor (Ngilu) announced in April 2018 would happen within six months, graves could be unearthed; children, elderly, and disabled be negatively affected; the land was not properly surveyed; no EIA or EMP was conducted; the community has never been informed about compensation for land or properties; efforts to resolve the matter have been futile, that the issues in this petition are not before any court of law, constitutional or legal body.”
One comment from 2017 women-led meetings organised with WoMin: “When people rise, power changes hands. Instead of the governments imposing projects on us as local communities, they will resort to consultations before investing on mega projects. Also, power in the hands of the locals will enhance community ownership in any project which has an adverse impact on their lives.”
Kitui coal plant?
The Government of Kenya has indicated in detailed government documents its intent to build a 960 MW coal plant in Kitui. Although barely publicly mentioned and with little sign of progress, the Kitui coal plant project profile continues to appear in official documents from multiple government ministries and cannot be ignored.
The project is described as “a 960MW Coal fired power plant, located on the eastern side of Mui Basin, in Kitui County, via an IPP framework.” The project value is listed as $1.8 billion (USD), to come from private funding. Its cost and size would be equivalent to the proposed Lamu coal plant.
One media report noted that “Chinese company HCIG Energy Investment Company with Liketh Investments Kenya Ltd won rights to develop the rest of the [coal mining] area and coal fired plant in 2015,” following a 2011 coal mining allocation to Fenxi Mining.
The most recent government power development plan, published in June 2018, lists Kitui coal plant and detailed parameters as well. In discussing potential Kitui coal mining, the report notes, “Coal power plant based on domestic coal could be developed directly near the Mui Basin in Kitui County once the mine is developed.”
More details on potential Kitui coal plant:
