Residents of coal rich Mui basin in Kitui County want the government to halt any plans to invest in coal energy in the county.
Speaking in Mwingi town yesterday, the residents in whose area a coal fired power plant has been proposed praised the recent decision by an environmental tribunal which stopped the Lamu coal power plant.
Led by their spokesman peter Musyoka, the residents called on the government to focus on setting up clean energy projects instead of coal energy.
They said the decision by National Environment Tribunal (NET) was in the best interests of the country saying coal was a high pollutant.
“The harmful effects of coal owing to pollution far outweigh any benefits. We have seen countries such as China and the United States close down coal fired power plants in the recent past so we wonder why Kenya is going for coal energy,” Musyoka said. He added that China had closed down 151 coal fired power plants while the US had closed 531 plants.
The Mui basin residents who have already presented their petition to the National Assembly committee on energy want the government to concentrate on use of hydro power, geothermal power and solar energy.
Musyoka was in a team of 10 people from Mui who in October last year visited Mpumalanga province in South Africa where there are vast activities of coal mining going on.
He noted that from their findings, the region was the most polluted in the world due to coal gas and greenhouse gas emissions.
Apart from the proposed Lamu coal power plant, the government has also proposed another coal plant in Mui basin which is expected to produce 960MW of electricity.
A week ago, NET cancelled the license for Kenya’s first coal-fired power plant following environmental concerns. The tribunal ruled that the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) issued the environmental impact assessment (EIA) licence to Amu Power Company Ltd without following the law.