Lake Turkana Wind Power: Marsabit leaders make fresh demands

Marsabit County leaders have made fresh demands as they celebrated a court verdict that found the State had illegally seized community land to facilitate the Lake Turkana Wind Power project. 

They want locals guaranteed jobs, social responsibility investments to support communities, connection to the power grid and for the County Government to earn revenue from the project.

In a landmark judgment, the High Court in Meru nullified the title deed for 150,000 acres on which the Sh70 billion project is to be implemented.

The residents of Laisamis Constituency had accused Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited of acquiring their ancestral land for the project without following due process.

The court agreed there was no public participation as required by the Constitution before the project was initiated in 2005.

Marsabit leaders, led by the Governor Mohamud Ali, praised the judgment as upholding the rule of law and asked authorities to consult local communities to safeguard their rights as the project is implemented. 

They now want inclusive implementation of the international definitions of indigeneity of the communities living in the region. 

"If it were not for the bold stand of the Judiciary against external influences, we'd have lost this land and we'd be gnashing our teeth. This is evidence that the Judiciary is independent and fair in their rulings," Governor Ali said on Saturday. 

The governor wants the implementation process of Free Prior and Informed Consent rule to be all-inclusive and to safeguard the economic, social and cultural rights of the communities that were displaced during the project development.

The leaders also want all the communities living in Laisamis Sub-County such as Samburu,Turkana, El Molo and Rendile communities to be listed as bona fide beneficiaries as they are all custodians of the land.

The exclusion of the Rendille community was the genesis of the land tussle that ended up in the lawsuit.

Mohamud Itarakwa Kochale, Kochale Jomo Jale, Issa Jitegwe Gambare, David Tamasot Arakhole, William Lengoyiap and Sekotey Seye had filed the suit on behalf of the residents citing lack of community participation in the land allocation process as required by the Community Land Act.

Governor Ali also wants the county government to be included in the list of beneficiaries so that it can generate revenue from the green energy project.

He also demanded the entire county be connected to the national grid and local residents get jobs at the firm.

Marsabit Senator Godana Hargura asked residents to utilise the 12-month window granted by the court for regularisation of land acquisition for their own benefit.

He said all the four communities living in the region should be guaranteed employment opportunities and goodwill investments from the consortium.

The residents complained they were unable to access the expansive land for grazing, and wanted the nullification of the title deed issued to the wind power company which was projected to inject 310mw into the national grid.