Land rights and local livelihoods The Lamu coal power plant significantly threatens the lands and livelihoods of the Lamu communities.

Lamu is home to the oldest and best preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has been an epicentre of Indian Ocean trade for centuries. The indigenous and traditional communities of Lamu have managed their lands, natural resources, and cultural traditions for generations - despite several losses due to insecure land tenure and political marginalisation.

According to deCOALanize, a campaign group committed to stopping the development of coal and coal-related industries in Kenya, states that the ability for Lamu residents to ‘’have a voice in dictating how its land and natural resources are exploited, and how its development proceed, will play a significant role in the continued existence of the Lamu community and its means of livelihood.’’

The Lamu coal power plant poses severe risks to Lamu’s delicate marine environment, which many fear will harm its two most vital industries: fishing and tourism.

Consultation The Save Lamu organisation has reported that a proper public consultation was not done for the Lamu coal power plant. Initial consultations were done before the project was fully developed. After these initial consultations, certain components of the project changed. The public was never consulted about these changes. Besides this lack of proper consultation, key groups of stakeholders – such as fishermen – were not consulted in detail.

In 2017, the Save Lamu Coalition wrote an open letter concerning their security, given intimidation and interference that their communities are facing in accessing and sharing information about major development projects in the Lamu community such as the Lamu coal power plant.

Public health Ernest Niemi, an economist and president of Natural Resource Economics, who has done studies on coal plants across the world for over 40 years, said operating the power coal plant to produce electricity will be cheap for the developers but expensive as an energy source to consumers and detrimental to the society in general. Testifying before the National Environmental Tribunal in Nairobi in June 2017, the US-based consultant said Kenya will incur a massive health burden coupled with deaths with the operation of the plant. Studies across the world, he said, show that the social cost of running coal-fired power plants exceeds the economic benefits (The Star).

Climate change The carbon dioxide emissions of the Lamu coal power plant would equal the total emissions of Kenya’s entire energy sector. The plant would be one of the worst emitters of greenhouse gases on the entire African content. The plans for the coal power plant contradict the commitments made by the government of Kenya to fight the climate emergency. The plans are also completely incompatible with the Paris Climate Agreement. All fossil fuel expansion is incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement and significantly decreases our chances of staying below 1.5°C of global warming.

The Lamu coal power plant project raises great concerns about its impact on the environment regarding toxic pollution from coal and ash, carbon emissions by the coal power plant and rising sea levels due to climate change. Many of the concerns have not been properly analysed in the environmental impact assessment that was accepted in 2016 (see here and here).

In 2019, the court ruled that Amu Power Company would have to carry out a fresh environmental impact assessment if it would want to proceed with the project. In June 2020, it was confirmed that a new impact assessment is still not done.

Ecosystem preservation The informal communal management of land in Lamu is critical to maintaining its remarkably pristine and historically and naturally rich ecosystem, including significant forest cover, biodiversity, coral, threatened species like sea turtles, and 70% of the country’s mangroves - a notable asset for the country and region, and a carbon sink for the world.

The Lamu coal power plant is closely associated with the LAPSSET corridor project. The LAPSSET (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport) project includes an oil and gas pipeline from northern Kenya to the coast, a 32-berth USD 5 billion port at Lamu, and significant additional infrastructure, including highways, railways, and a resort city.

Community groups argue that there has been little consideration of the LAPSSET project’s high potential to irrevocably harm the ecosystem, its biodiversity, and the human communities that depend on it for their lives. In 2012, Lamu communities filed a petition against state and investors over concerns on LAPSSET. In 2018, the court ruled in favour of the communities citing an unprocedural EIA and inadequate mitigation measures. However, since then, the government has not met any of the court’s requirements for consultation, compensation, and refinement of mitigation measures. Instead, they have appealed the decision made by the court.