" Kitui Coal Mining Project Is a Disaster in the Making"

Prospecting for coal in Kenya started in 2000 and the discovery of large, commercial coal deposits in the Mui Basin in Kitui — a 500 square kilometre area about 270 kilometres east of Nairobi — was announced in 2010. The government revealed during the recent budget reading that it has allocated funds for coal mining and there are plans to drill 20 more coal exploration wells. Kenya is doing this just as the world is scaling down coal mining and rolling out plans to phase out coal and replace it with renewable energies...

Below are the reasons why the government should leave the coal in the ground... The community in the Mui Basin is vehemently opposed to coal mining in the region. The women, in particular, have raised concerns over informal land tenure rights. The community is pondering where they and their families will go when they abandon their ancestral lands to coal mining...

Coal mining causes different kinds of pollution that cause environmental, health, and other concerns. These include noise, water and air pollution.  As coal is mined, the noise can be heard from a distance of up to 10 miles (about 16 km). While one could argue that noise pollution is the least harmful environmental effect of coal mining, it causes discomfort to communities living near the coal mines and those working in the mines.