Determinants of Environmental Conservation Practices at Project Planning and Design in Kengen, Kenya

Abstract

The overall objective of this research was to investigate the determinants of environmental conservation practices in project planning and design at Kengen, Kenya. The objectives of the research were to examine how legal and regulatory framework, stakeholders' involvement and additional costs influence the environmental conservation practices at project planning and design stage. Through literature review most of the previous studies in this area show little baseline data available towards environment issues when carrying out major installations in the energy sector, most of the mitigation measures are left unaddressed after completion of the projects, lack of engagement of environmental experts and inadequate or no funding during project planning and design stage to address environmental issues. Data was collected through interview and document analysis focused group discussions and observations. The researcher targeted Planning department personnel, project engineers, operations engineers and environmental officer. The researcher used 20 respondents for interview, 6 personnel for focused group discussions and 25 project documents for analysis. In this research, a study of kipevu III power plant project, Tana power station project, Ngong wind power plant and Geothermal power project was carried out. From the study all the four projects were done within the legal and regulatory framework with EIA being conducted before start of the project where licences and permits were given by NEMA and ERe to do the project. All the projects from the study showed stakeholder's involvement through public participation in barazas and minutes were availed with Olkaria having challenges during implementation as the locals interrupted the process with more demands. From the study additional costs to cater for environmental conservation practices was found to be paramount without which little could be done, budget for the EMP was captured under the major project. There is need to improve on the areas of stakeholder's involvement based on their constitution and resolutions well agreed on also there is need during EMP in the major projects to do itemized funding as these will have environmental issues given more emphasis.