KiliAvo Fresh, the Kenyan company seeking to commercially farm avocados in an important wildlife and Maasai grazing area, has filed a case at the National Environment Tribunal.
The Nairobi-based company, owned by Harji Mavji and Suresh Kurji Kerai, is appealing against the revocation in April by the National Environment Management Authority of its licence to operate a farm on 180 acres it owns east of the Amboseli National Park.
The first mention of its case, NET 7 of 2021, was heard on Monday, with KiliAvo, Conservation Alliance of Kenya and Nema attending. The case was adjourned for the next mention on September 28.
This case is a repeat, almost exactly a year on, of an earlier appeal KiliAvo lodged at NET against a Nema order to cease operations pending the expected revocation of its licence.
Concerns had been raised over how the company’s environmental impact assessment was prepared and approved, and the farm’s true impact on the environment, local people’s livelihoods and wildlife.
The NET dismissed that earlier case on April 26 after seven months of hearings.
NET chairman Mohammed Balala said KiliAvo had failed to provide reports and ready witnesses to help make its case, despite earlier calling for urgency.
Despite Nema ordering the company to stop operations at the farm, activity has continued in defiance of the legal orders.
The Amboseli Land Owners Conservancies Association is among many stakeholders who oppose the firm’s operations on the site. Others are the Kenya Wildlife Service, other local businesses, conservationists and concerned citizens.
KiliAvo Fresh Ltd’s 180-acre farm is located between Amboseli National Park, in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro on Kenya’s border with Tanzania, and a series of other protected areas including the Kimana Sanctuary, Tsavo West National Park and Chyulu Hills National Park.
It is surrounded by community conservancies where the local Maasai landowners, earn significant income from tourism and from grazing livestock.
Conservationists have raised concerns that growing commercial crops will use more water than the semi-arid area can supply and deny water to smallholder farmers downstream, while blocking traditional grazing areas for cattle and migration paths for wildlife, including elephants.
If the farm is allowed to continue, it is feared it will set a precedent that many others might follow, severely affecting wildlife and damaging livelihoods.
Edited by Henry Makori
