Ratio Magazine :: The Inside Track to East Africa’s Economies - Kenya: Chief Justice Moves To Comply With Own Rules In Mumias Sugar Tana River Case

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Kenya: Chief Justice Moves To Comply With Own Rules In Mumias Sugar Tana River Case

Wednesday, 17 September 2008

After Lady Justice Helen Omondi admitted to her mistake in giving orders in the case against Mumias Sugar in the Malindi court, Chief Justice Evans Gicheru stepped in to prevent the stalling of the KES24bn investment project.

Chief Justice Evans Gicheru has stepped in to avert the stalling of Kenya's largest sugar project, worth KES24bn, brought about by the misinterpretation by a judge of the High Court of Gicheru's controversial order on the hearing of constitutional cases and judicial reviews passed last year. In 2007, the chief justice had ordered that all constitutional and judicial review cases against the government or its agencies be filed at the Central Registry of the High Court in Nairobi except where leave had been obtained for filling in a district registry. However, Lady Justice Helen Omondi had given orders to stop Mumias Sugar's Tana River delta project in the Malindi court in contravention of these rules, and then admitted her mistake in writing to the chief justice.

The Chief Justice has now directed that the case be heard in Malindi, after all, paving the way forward for the orders that had been given stopping the project to be challenged. The orders stopping the proposed KES24bn sugar cane project in the Tana River Delta were not just given in contravention of Gicheru's 2007 rules, but also in the absence of lawyers for Mumias Sugar Company. "Following the letter dated 2 September 2008 by the Hon Lady Justice H.A. Omondi to his lordship the Hon Chief Justice, the latter has directed that this judicial review application be heard at Malindi on dates to be fixed by the parties," reads a letter written by the Senior Deputy Registrar, Muiruri. This now means that the judicial review application can be heard in Malindi in conformation to the law. Mumias is expected to strongly challenge the injunction and have the earlier orders lifted so that the project can proceed.

Background: Environmental and Viability Concerns
Mumias Sugar Company is seeking to establish cane, milling and electricity generation operations in the Tana River delta. According to Mumias sugar management, the project will lead to relatively cheap sugar in the domestic market, helping to counter the competition from cheap imported sugar into the country after the COMESA safeguards are lifted. The project will include cane production, sugar milling, co-generation of up to 34MW of electricity, ethanol production and support to livestock and fisheries activities in the area.

Environmentalists have argued that the project is not viable in view of the area's record of floods, and that it will cause significant environmental damage: Environmental bodies claim that the sugar project will lead to the loss of at least 20,000 hectares of semi natural habitat and lead to severe competition for water between the project and another sugar project proposed by MAT International as well as National Irrigation Board projects, livestock, wildlife, fisheries and ecosystem needs.

Even though Mumias' Tana River Delta project was approved by the National Environment Management Authority's (NEMA) after an environmental impact assessment, environmental groups claimed that NEMA's decision was not based on the full understanding of the possible impact on the environment and moved to court seeking orders to stop it. The Tana River Pastoralists Development Organisation, Tana Delta Conservation Organisation, East Africa Wild Life Society and the Centre for Environmental Legal Research and Education had obtained orders from lady justice Omondi stopping the process until issues they had raised about NEMA's environmental impact assessment test were addressed.

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