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Local communities at Naivasha, Kenya ask to be involved in development

Local communities at Naivasha, Kenya ask to be involved in development Settlement at Naivasha, Kenya (source: flickr/ Stefan Magdalinski, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 23 Mar 2016

Local community leaders in Naivasha, Kenya are asking companies working on geothermal development to involve the local community in order to avoid conflict.

Geothermal projects in Kenya have faced local opposition from time to time, sometimes even rather strong opposition.

The reason is often that communities don’t feel involved and consider having the right to be involved, either in the royalties distribution or getting jobs on the projects.This is not exemplary for Kenya alone, but also in other parts of the world. Stakeholder engagement is therefore quite crucial.

Local community leaders from Naivasha in Kenya now ask companies working on geothermal exploration to involve their communities to avoid conflicts.

With the geothermal work  and the potential at Longonot and Mai Mahiu areas, they see a recipe for conflicts between communities if at all they will not be involved.

A local leader, Antony Rebo, said residents in the area should benefit from resources equally without favouritism.

Rebo said there have been conflicts in the past as some companies working in the area were seen to support one community at the behest of others.

“We want equal distribution of resources and other benefits to all residents who live in Naivasha and more so Nakuru County.”

On his part, chairman of the Nakuru County Youths forum Charles Mburu called on the companies to ensure they employ youths in the area in line with the law.

“Everybody knows that 30 per cent of employment in any company should be locals, and this is what we want to see done here not only with companies doing geothermal productions but in others as well”.

Source: HiviSasa