| dc.description.abstract | In recent years public participation has become to be seen as a vital part of addressing
environmental problems and bringing about sustainable development. In this context, vacating
the limits of solely relying on technocratic bureaucratic monopoly of decision-making, allows
governments to adopt policies and enact laws that are relevant to communities and take into
account their needs. The principle of public participation holds that those who are affected by a
decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process. Public participation implies
that the public's contribution will influence the decision.
Borrowing from the advancement of Public participation as part of a "people first" paradigm
shift, this study challenges the concept that "big is better" and the logic of centralized
hierarchies, advancing alternative concepts of "more heads are better than one" and arguing
that public participation can sustain productive and durable change.
The right to public participation is to a considerable extent enshrined by laws of the land and the
notion of public participation in environmental decision making (EDM) and is gaining currency
in post-modern democratic practice. However, there is little concomitant and literal engagement
of the people at the earliest stages of environmental assessments.
Access to environmental information for all who choose to participate in such decision-making is
integral to the concept of environmental democracy. The policy of access to information,
provides the foundation, and advocates providing basic information to the public. Informed with
basic facts about the quality of their environment, citizens can become active participants in
identifying and resolving issues at both local and national levels. Across the globe, many
countries have adopted this policy and have shaped it to meet their particular needs. Advocacy
in matters related to the environment has coalesced around the notion of public participation in
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EDM The role of the community sector in helping these decision-makers to make good decisions
cannot be over-estimated.
While public participation has been advanced as a means of democratizing environmental
management and conservation of the country's ecosystem, it is surprising that there are very
limited compliance mechanisms or proper processes that have been put in place on how it can be
actualized Individuals and community groups find it very difficult to participate meaningfully in
environmental decision-making unless they have access to information relevant to the decision to
be made. Ideally, the public should have access to the same information as the decision-maker.
In practice, this rarely occurs.
The study seeks to establish the nature and contours of public participation in EDM, with
specific focus on the environmental legislations, policy and practice in Kenya; to establish the
efficacy and efficiency oj the provisions of environmental related law in advancing public
participation in environmental matters in Kenya; to identify Jactors limiting the ability Jor
participatory environmental decision making in Kenya; and, to make appropriate
recommendations on policy, legislation and practice where weaknesses exist, with a view to
strengthening public participation on environmental decision-making.
The study posits that unless homage is paid to these conundrums, ours is likely to be a mere
perfunctory erection oj legislative frameworks without proper ideological foundations or
normative processes that nurture them. In this regard, the study states at the outset that public
participation in EDM must entail a bold but radical remodification of the concept and its
normative edifice. This will not be attained by merely creating institutions with lofty aims, but
rather, in a deliberate process of political transformation that is interwoven with virtues of
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democratic environmental governance and normative processes. Or else, public participation
will continue to remain tucked somewhere between rhetoric and reality. | en |
