The High Court has cleared the way for the construction of a 52-kilometre tarmac road through the Aberdare National Park and Forest after dismissing a petition that sought to halt the multibillion-shilling infrastructure project on environmental grounds.
In a unanimous judgment, a three-judge bench ruled that the environmental safeguards put in place for the project are adequate, provided they are fully implemented during both the construction and operational phases.
The judges said their decision was guided by the constitutional principle of sustainable development, which requires a balance between infrastructure development and environmental conservation while protecting the interests of present and future generations.
“The petitioner did not prove violations of Article 69(1) of the Constitution,” the judges held, finding that the evidence presented was insufficient to demonstrate that the State had failed in its constitutional duty to protect and conserve the environment.
The court further found that concerns raised by stakeholders had been considered through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process and did not warrant stopping implementation of the project.
On the issue of environmental licensing, the judges held that the legal provisions relied upon by the petitioners were not in force when the EIA licence was issued. They ruled that it would be legally improper to require the project proponents to comply with laws that had not yet taken effect at the time the licence was granted.
The petition was filed by the East Africa Wildlife Society, the Kenya Forest Working Group, the Africa Centre for Peace and Human Rights, and conservationist Lempaa Suyianka against the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and other government agencies involved in the project. The petitioners sought to stop the construction of the proposed 52-kilometre road linking Nyandarua and Nyeri counties through the Aberdare National Park and Forest. They argued that the project would cause irreversible environmental degradation by fragmenting one of Kenya’s most important protected ecosystems.
According to the petitioners, the road posed a serious threat to endangered wildlife, including the critically endangered Mountain Bongo, disrupted wildlife migration corridors, increased the risk of human-wildlife conflict, and opened the protected forest to illegal activities such as logging and encroachment.
They also argued that the Aberdare ecosystem is one of Kenya’s most important water towers, supplying water to millions of people, wildlife and livestock, and is currently on Kenya’s tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status. The petitioners maintained that allowing the project to proceed would undermine the constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment guaranteed under Article 42 of the Constitution.
Additionally, they challenged the legality of the Environmental Impact Assessment licence issued for the project, contending that the approval process failed to comply with environmental laws and public participation requirements.
However, after considering the evidence and submissions from all parties, the High Court concluded that the petitioners had failed to establish any constitutional or legal violations that would justify stopping the project.
The judgment now paves the way for KeNHA to proceed with construction of the 52-kilometre tarmac road through the Aberdare National Park and Forest, subject to strict compliance with the environmental mitigation measures and safeguards outlined in the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment.
