Seventeen people arrested after a public meeting on Kenya’s proposed nuclear power plant turned violent are being investigated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, their lawyer has told Mongabay.
The government plans a 2,000-megawatt nuclear plant near Bondo, in Siaya County on the shores of Lake Victoria. Officials from the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency were holding a public consultation in the town on 24 July when the meeting broke down.
Dickens Ochieng, a lawyer and community member who was present, said landowners at the meeting began shouting “Wadagi” – “we refuse” in Dholuo. He said a police officer guarding the government delegation then fired, hitting one person in the leg, and the meeting descended into chaos. Residents threw stones and officers responded with tear gas.
Seventeen people were arrested in the days that followed. A document reviewed by Mongabay shows they are being investigated for assault and under anti-terrorism law. Ochieng, who is defending them, described an intense crackdown on opponents of the project and said the terrorism angle is meant to intimidate rather than to secure convictions.
Fifteen of the 17 have been released after neighbours crowdfunded bail of between KSh15,000 and KSh180,000. Ochieng said most people in the area are fishermen and small traders, many living on less than a dollar a day, and that a defenders’ coalition could only cover the lower bail amounts.
Mongabay said it approached the Bondo police commander and NuPEA for comment and had received no response by publication.
Opposition to the plant is not new. Demonstrations were held in May and an online petition calling for the project to be stopped is still circulating. The 2023 Strategic Environmental Assessment for Kenya’s nuclear programme said the Lake Victoria region should be avoided because it is vulnerable to volcanic disturbance that could affect the safety of a plant. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake, is shared with Uganda and Tanzania and millions of people depend on it for food, water and work.
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Source: Mongabay
