What is WKELC?

Western Kenya Environmental Law Centre is an initiative of Haki Mazingira, the Environmental Justice Programme of RECONCILE. It seeks to animate citizens as individuals and groups to promote environmental enforcement and compliance in the three provinces of Western Kenya (Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western).

The Centre shall undertake its work through research, training, advocacy and public interest litigation that supports and facilitates citizen action in the promotion and protection of environmental rights. It shall seek to work closely with environmental enforcement and regulatory institutions, particularly Provincial and District Environmental Committees and other EMCA lead agencies, Local Government Authorities, the private sector and civil society organisations, to find legal and policy solutions to environmental challenges facing Kenyans in both rural and urban settings.

The Centre is driven by the conviction that policies, laws and institutions for the sustainable management of the environment are meaningless in the absence of compliance and enforcement, which in turn is not possible without citizen awareness and participation. It shall therefore seek to mobilise citizens in the protection and promotion of environmental rights.

The Centre seeks to position itself as a resource for the use of individuals and groups to address environmental management challenges through law. It shall therefore establish itself as a centre of excellence on EMCA and other environmental laws and policies. In this connection, an important feature of the Centre shall be the Mazingira Resource Centre, to be established at RECONCILE. The Resource Centre shall stock key materials on environmental policy in Kenya including statutes, books, and research reports. It shall also develop and maintain a database on environmental law, lawyers and institutions in the region and the country.