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Charles Lukeyen Nabori and 9 Others V Attorney General and Another.

Country/Territory
Kenya
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Dec 11, 2008
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
High Court of Kenya at Nairobi
Judge
Aganyanya, D.K.S.
Language
English
Subject
Wild species & ecosystems, Legal questions
Keyword
Alien species Biodiversity
Abstract
The Kenyan government and the Food Agricultural Organization undertook a joint project in 1982 that introduced prosopis juliflora (“the weed”) in baringo district. Petitioners claimed that the weed had caused extensive damage to the lake basin ecosystem and it had become dangerous. They claimed the government had shown no efforts to solve the problem and that the right to a clean and healthy environment was being breached by its unabated spread. Therefore they asked whether the weed could be declared a noxious weed in the same category with other weeds set out in the suppression of Noxious Weeds Act-Environment Management and Coordination Act, and the Suppression of Noxious weeds Act. Petitioners seeked the declarations, inter alia, that their rights to life as set out in section 71 of the Constitution had been compromised by the introduction of the weed, the respondents claimed that section 3(3) of The Environment Management and Coordination Act did not create any rights for the petitioners under the Constitution. Petition was dismissed based on the fact that the noxious effects could not be foressen at the time the plant was introduced, and no specific subject could be considered respomsible, and that there were not sufficient evidence of the infringement of the constitutional rights.
Full text
COU-158572.pdf