{"id":3355,"date":"2019-06-27T07:33:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T07:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:22","slug":"a-twisted-reality-coal-power-in-kenya-is-a-fuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/06\/27\/a-twisted-reality-coal-power-in-kenya-is-a-fuss\/","title":{"rendered":"A Twisted Reality- Coal Power In Kenya Is A Fuss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the world moves towards renewable energy as\npart of curbing carbon emissions to cut global warming, Kenya is still\nstruggling with coal mining industries. The discovery of an estimated 400\nmillion tons of commercially viable coal reserves in Block C in Mui Basin, with\nan estimated value of 3.4 trillion in 2010, was seen as a major breakthrough in\nmaking Kenya an industrial hub. However, the big question remains: Is coal mining sustainable?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has it ever occurred to\nyou what happens to the people living around the mines and manufacturing\nindustries of the coal-related electricity we all enjoy countrywide? Of course,\nwe assume that they are as happy as we all are or even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ: End Coal Mining<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nis the wakeup call<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities living around\ncoal-mining industries have nothing to smile about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they are intimately\naffected by coal-related diseases and pollution, they do not have access to electricity\nand water. They breathe in contaminated air from the very polluted mines that\nprovide electricity for our country, yet they sit in the dark, paying with\ntheir health for a service they cannot access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by Greenpeace\nAfrica, communities living at the doorstep of coal washeries- sites where coal\nis washed \u2018clean\u2019 before it is used in coal plants, other heavy industries or\nexported, suffer tremendous health effects but yet still cannot access the very\nbenefits of the coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coal extracted is\nused to make electricity. Yet these communities have no access to electricity.\nThe mines use a lot of water- but they do not have water. How does this happen?\nIt hurts even at the mention of this fact. It is even more stressful to note\nthat everything they need as a community is there. These communities wish they\ncould get a chance to live as humans but that is a dream they keep hoping it\nwould come to reality someday, which we do not know when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The washing of coal is an\nintensive process that uses vast amounts of water, leaving behind the giant,\nlifeless dams poisoned with hazardous chemicals. It is far from the ideal place\nto be living \u2013especially for families with young children. But communities have\nlived here for 20 years, long before there were mines and washeries. In these\n20 years, most of them do not even have access to tap water- but the washeries\nacross the path get all they need in surplus amounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nis sadder\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sad reality, however,\nis that many people cannot move away; many choose to stay put. Over the years,\ncommunities have grown in between the mines and coal stacks and many families\nare now directly dependent on them for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the sad\nreality that awaits the people of Lamu and Kitui.<\/a> The\ntoll effects that the coal-related industries pose to communities and the\nclimate out-weigh their benefits. Health bills and climate change are on the\nrise and this should act as a red flag for our country. There are better\ntechnologies that we can embrace other than coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of coal in\nAfrica, like most developments in the continent, was a concept that originated\nfrom developed Western nations two or three centuries back. Coal was the fuel\nthat drove the Industrial Revolution and brought to life steam-powered engines\nand a myriad of other technologies that make life what it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paradox of it is that\nit also powered the discovery of renewable energy technologies. Unlike its\ncounterparts, the renewable energy is environmentally friendly, cheap and does\nnot impose severe health effects to the communities. With research, this kind\nof technologies- wind, solar and hydropower are highly acknowledged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kenya however, it has\nnot been easy to stem out coal mining. The government ironically still\nadvocates for coal mining despite knowing the effects. With an excuse that the\ncoal mining industry is the answer to the industrial revolution, two more projects\nhave been approved, which need to be <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Anti-coal protesters in Lamu Kenya. Photo by deCOALonize <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

deCOALonize<\/a> is a coalition of\nenvironmental and social justice that advocates the concerns about the\nincreasing interest in coal power production and exploration in Kenya and in\nparticular the coal projects in Lamu and Kitui. This campaign provides\ninformation both offline and online to local communities, policy makers,\nacademics and civil society on alternatives to coal and for embracing clean\nenergy in Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ: Policy poses a fresh headache for Sh200b Lamu coal plant<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal-power plants could become a financial liability sooner than 2050<\/a>, perhaps much sooner. The climate change costs of coal will only\nincrease in the coming years making renewable energy technologies a better\noption for Kenyans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world moves towards renewable energy as part of curbing carbon emissions to cut global warming, Kenya is still struggling with coal mining industries. The discovery of an estimated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}