The Role of Public Participation in Realizing Environmental Rights in Kenya

Abstract

The topic for this research is “The Role of Public Participation in Realising Environmental Rights in Kenya”. Accordingly, the overall objective of the study is to evaluate the significance of meaningful public participation in realizing the right to a clean and healthy environment. This research deals with three (3) issues that affect the quality of public participation in Kenya including: lack of access to information; the effectiveness of the existing guidelines for conducting public consultation in environmental decision-making processes and the effectiveness of the judicial and administrative remedies for seeking redress. The gap in knowledge that this research fills, is the identification of gaps and weaknesses in Kenya’s legal framework on access to information, public participation and access to remedies for redress of grievances. In this way, the research seeks to provide a clear definition of what amounts to effective public participation. This research project is founded on the theory of sustainable development as propounded in the ‘Brundtland Report’. The research methodology adopted in this study is doctrinal in nature and therefore, largely qualitative. The researcher collected data by conducting an extensive desktop review of existing laws and case laws from data bases in the Kenya Law Reports, the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and the National Environmental Tribunal (NET) websites among other sources. The findings of this research affirms the hypothesis that the lack of effective public participation in environmental decision making processes in Kenya is attributed to the absence of a comprehensive legal framework on access to information, guidelines on a sound public consultation process and access to remedies. Further, the researcher established that existing laws on access to information, public participation and access to remedies are not being implemented properly by the duty bearers.