Activist in court to stop Lamu coal plant

Activist Okiya Omtata has filed a case seeking court orders to prohibit the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) from issuing electricity generation license for the Lamu Coal Plant.

Under a certificate of urgency, Omtata also wants the court to suspend Environmental Impact Assessment license for the plant on grounds there is no justification given for the toxic Lamu plant given that Kenya has an excess supply of electricity and its renewable power sources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, solar and biomass have hardly been tapped.

He argues that the petition is of extreme public interest since the project complained of contravenes the constitution.

The project was launched in 2013 with a view of injecting 5000MW of power to the national grid which stands at 3000MW currently.