Lamu Coal: A much needed energy boost or cancer causing project?

Lamu County Woman Rep Shakila Abdalla (centre) leads a demonstration against the proposed coal project. (Photo: Maarufu Mohamed/Standard)

The overhead fans in the rectangular room on the first floor hallway of the Lamu Fort are at full speed. Mohammed Athman, 51, adjusts himself in the little black chair at the front. The entire room watches his every movement. For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the ruffling of papers as teams of lawyers flip through pages from mountains of submissions tabled before them.

Athman believes the proceedings are key to determining whether his home, as he knows, will remain the same or forever be changed. To his right, sat five individuals, all of them members of the National Environmental Tribunal that flew in from Nairobi, to listen to the people of Lamu over the establishment of a 1,050MW coal plant, by private company Amu Power, in the county.