Towards a home-grown approach to strategic environmental assessment: adapting practice and participation in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya is among the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to formally require the assessment of public policies, plans and programs. National strategic environmental assessment (SEA) guidelines were finalized in 2012 to adapt and enhance SEA practice in the Kenyan context. The purpose of this research was to examine recent Kenyan SEA, with a particular emphasis on public participation, by developing and applying an analysis framework that both incorporates commonly accepted SEA principles and approaches and is cognizant of the national context in shaping SEA practice. Results reveal that a number of SEA practices are consistent with the framework in the nine cases considered, such as containing standard SEA components and developing monitoring plans. A requirement that each SEA must include educating the public about SEA is an innovative local adaptation. Results also show a number of practices that are still emerging, such as initiating SEA early and disseminating results to the participants. We conclude that SEA is still developing in Kenya, but processes for conducting it are slowly adapting to the Kenyan context. ' … re-shaped by empirical and evaluatory lessons from Kenyan's own SEA experience and context' (Mutui et al. 2013, p. 181). This parallels a previous call by Onyango and Schmidt (2007, p. 325

SEA, Urban Plans and Solid Waste Management in Kenya: Participation and Learning for Sustainable Cities

“…Public participation in SEA is recognised as a potential mechanism for shifting power imbalances and promoting the empowerment of groups typically marginalised from strategic land-use decision-making (Bonifazi et al, 2011;Rega and Bonifazi, 2014;Celestino et al, 2018). The inclusion of diverse groups has been identified as a strength of Kenyan SEA in this study and previous ones (Walker et al, 2014(Walker et al, , 2016. However, representation itself may not equate to real influence over SEA outcomes.…”

“…Several researchers have operationalised the ideal conditions for transformative learning and applied them to resource and environmental management, particularly to identify and evaluate meaningful public participation, including in SEA (Sinclair and Diduck, 2001;Sinclair et al, 2009;Spaling et al, 2011;Walker et al, 2014Walker et al, , 2016Diduck et al, 2012). This paper draws from and builds on this work by applying the ideal conditions to the two SEA cases.…”

“…Two innovative features of SEA participation in Kenya are a required education component in the public participation process to raise awareness about SEA (NEMA, 2012), and the prioritisation of "the cultural and social principles traditionally applied by any community in Kenya for the management of the environment or natural resources" (EMCA, 2015, 3(5) (b)). Scholarly studies generally agree that the legislative framework for SEA in Kenya is quite strong and that public participation is gradually becoming more open, inclusive and thorough in bringing citizens and communities into higher-level PPP processes (Okello et al, 2009;Onyango and Schmidt, 2007;Mutui et al, 2013;Walker et al, 2016). However, these studies also highlight significant barriers in practice, such as weak accountability (e.g.…”

“…However, these studies also highlight significant barriers in practice, such as weak accountability (e.g. showing how participant feedback is used in decision-making) (Mutui et al, 2013), late timing of participation in the SEA process (Onyango and Schmidt, 2007;Walker et al, 2016), and inadequate participant notice, access to information, and poor communication and follow up (Walker et al, 2014).…”

“…Evaluation frameworks invariably cite participative processes as a core component of SEA (IAIA, 2002;Retief, 2007;Noble, 2009;Walker et al, 2016). According to such frameworks, good participation practices in SEA means that participants have opportunities to participate meaningfully and actively in deliberations, are involved throughout the SEA process, have access to all relevant information, and have their input and concerns addressed.…”