Advancing Capacity and Access to Justice in Kenya’s Extractives Sector - Extractives Baraza

The discovery of oil in Kenya has attracted attention and interest from different stakeholders, including local communities. The Government of Kenya now prioritises the extractives sector as a key contributor to economic development. Despite these positive expectations, there are fears of the negative impacts of the sector, which need to be addressed. Following the discovery of oil in Turkana, the country has seen increased grievances, most of which revolve around local content, information asymmetry, beneficial ownership, land and compensation, revenue sharing, and security risks among others. Further, the law and policy making process has experienced unprecedented delays, for instance, a modern Petroleum Bill to replace the arcane Petroleum Act of 1986 has been pending in Parliament since 2014, an inclusion of contentious and weak regulatory provisions as well as the lack of robust consultations among citizens and stakeholders leading to accusations of elite capture and incompetence among regulatory officials among others.

Extractives Baraza (EB) under Strathmore Extractives Industry Centre (SEIC) conducted a study on “Advancing Capacity and Access to Justice in Kenya’s Extractives Sector”, to identify and document extractives related grievances, preferred grievance handling mechanisms. The project, conducted between June to August 2018 in Turkana County, was an expansion of the Extractives Baraza’s Pilot Listening Project conducted in April 2017 in Mui Basin, a coal rich region in Kitui County. The findings generated through this research informed the Judiciary Training on Extractives on 5th-9th November 2018, and will be used to develop a Judiciary Guide that clearly outlines grievances and potential grievance handling mechanisms that the judiciary should consider to ensure access to justice in the sector.