Legal Empowerment: Liberate the Oppressed from Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Sand Mining at Ras-Kitau, Lamu County

This case study details the successful effort by residents of Ras-Kitau, Lamu County, supported by Natural Justice, to stop an illegal sand mining operation that caused significant environmental damage and property loss.

• A sand mining operation that began on December 22nd, 2016, to fortify the Majlis Hotel’s shoreline caused severe environmental and structural damage, including the degradation of mangroves, beach erosion, loss of landing sites, and the submerging of homes.
• The sand mining operation violated Section 58(1)(2) of the 2015 Environment Management and Coordination Act because it lacked both a license and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
• Following a complaint lodged by affected residents and Natural Justice’s Community Environmental Legal Officer (CELO), and a subsequent site inspection by the County Director of Environment, the operation was stopped by a cease order on May 11th, 2018, due to the proponent's failure to provide the required EIA documentation.

APA

Muiruri, S. (2023). Legal Empowerment: Liberate the Oppressed from Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Sand Mining at Ras-Kitau, Lamu County. Natural Justice. https://naturaljustice.org/legal-empowerment-liberate-the-oppressed-from-environmental-injustice-a-case-study-of-sand-mining-at-ras-kitau-lamu-county/

Chicago

Muiruri, Salome. Legal Empowerment: Liberate the Oppressed from Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Sand Mining at Ras-Kitau, Lamu County. Natural Justice, 2023. https://naturaljustice.org/legal-empowerment-liberate-the-oppressed-from-environmental-injustice-a-case-study-of-sand-mining-at-ras-kitau-lamu-county/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Muiruri |first1=Salome |title=Legal Empowerment: Liberate the Oppressed from Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Sand Mining at Ras-Kitau, Lamu County |publisher=Natural Justice |date=21 August 2023 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/legal-empowerment-liberate-the-oppressed-from-environmental-injustice-a-case-study-of-sand-mining-at-ras-kitau-lamu-county/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{muiruri2023legal, author = {Muiruri, Salome}, title = {{Legal Empowerment: Liberate the Oppressed from Environmental Injustice: A Case Study of Sand Mining at Ras-Kitau, Lamu County}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/legal-empowerment-liberate-the-oppressed-from-environmental-injustice-a-case-study-of-sand-mining-at-ras-kitau-lamu-county/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }