• Party is made up of mostly environmental activists who want state to focus more on renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal.
• Construction of plant was to begin in 2015 but has been repeatedly postponed because of opposition from environmentalists and politicians.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
Newly-registered political party, United Green Movement, has welcomed the revocation of the licence to build a coal-fired power plant in Lamu saying it would have been 'a chimney of death’.
The party, which is made up of mostly environmental activists, asked the government to focus more on renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal.
UGM said the move by the National Environmental Tribunal led by Mohamed Balala, is a step in the right direction and will protect Kenyans from killer ailments like cancer.
“Coal as a source of energy produces a number of profoundly harmful environmental pollutants which can cause ailments like asthma, cancer, heart and lung problems, neurological problems, acid rain and global warming,” UGM secretary general Hamisa Zaja said.
She addressed the press at Midview hotel in Nyali, Mombasa.
On Wednesday, the Balala-led tribunal said Amu Power, the firm that plans to build the Sh200 billion coal plant, should carry out a fresh Environmental Impact Assessment if it decides to proceed with the project.
Amu Power is a consortium comprising Kenya’s Gulf Energy, Nairobi bourse-listed Centum Investment and a group of Chinese companies.
Construction of the plant that would produce 1,050 megawatts was scheduled to begin in 2015 but has been repeatedly postponed because of opposition from environmentalists and politicians.
Environmental activists argue that the plant will pollute the air, destroy mangroves and breeding grounds for up to five endangered species of marine turtles, fish and other marine life.
Kenya has a power capacity of about 2,333MW and the additional 1,050MW is about 45 per cent of that.
On Wednesday, the tribunal ruled that environmental watchdog, National Environmental Management Authority, did not follow the law in issuing the EIA licence to Amu Power.
It faulted the project for omitting engineering plans and details of the plant from public participation, in addition to finding that it was not consistent with the Climate Change Act.
On Thursday, UGM said the government should move the country towards 100 per cent renewable energy and invest in readily available, clean and increasingly low-cost geothermal, wind and solar resources.
Feisal Miti, an activist from Lamu, said the coal power plant is a selfish project by a few tycoons who want to make billions of shillings at the expense of Lamu people’s lives.
“It is part of the corruption menace that we have in this country. Lamu Coal plant is one of the formulae they are using to loot Kenyan taxpayers’ money,” he said.
UGM said Lamu is a heritage site whose environment should be protected.
“Generation of power through coal is an outdated, primitive method. People are moving forward and we cannot afford to stay behind in the reconnaissance time,” Miti said.
Zaja said Kenya has signed several multilateral environmental agreements, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Convention for Biological Diversity, and should adhere to the rules stated therein.
UGM Lamu coordinator Mohamed Bin Ali said Lamu youth are sceptical of the promised jobs by the plant.
“We were told the same thing when the Lamu Port was being constructed. Very few youths got jobs in the construction. And will we work at the plant while sick with cancer?”
UGM director of ecological wisdom Lilian Mulupi said the revocation of the EIA license is a win for the environment.
“It is unfortunate that the information we have heard about the project is not true,” Mulupi said.
She said the projections about the plant and its benefits are way off the mark.
She noted that the economic value of the plant will not be commensurate with the damage it will do.
Edited by R.Wamochie