On Monday the 30th of April, the High Court of Kenya declared that the construction of the Lamu port, a component of the LAPSSET project, failed basic constitutional and legal requirements. The case, which was led by partners, Katiba Institute, with the support of Save Lamu, Natural Justice and Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, was successful on all grounds, including violations of legal procedure on public participation, the right to information, the right to a clean and healthy environment and right to culture. Compensation of 1.7 billion Kenyan Shillings (17 million USD) was also awarded to the 4,600-fisherman affected by the port construction. The environmental license has been sent back to the regulator to increase the environmental and social protections.
Natural Justice has been supporting communities affected by the port development in Lamu since 2010. Natural Justice and its partner, Save Lamu, will continue to monitor the legal implementation of the port project through the community environmental legal officer program, currently being run in the County.
A summary and full judgement of the case can be found here.
