"Locals oppose plans to build first coal-fired power plant in Kenya"

...In a few years...[Lamu] might be disrupted by multi-billion dollar coal power project planned for nearby. “There can be no doubt that a project of this scale and scope, in an area as remote and protected as Lamu, cannot help but have profound negative impacts on the heritage,” said a 2015 report on the area from Unesco’s World Heritage Committee...[The] project has been opposed by community-based organisations. Save Lamu has been advocating to stop the plant’s construction. The group’s concerns regarding the plant include environmental and health hazards...

Aboud Mohamed, community liaison officer for Amu Power, the company that won the tender for the construction of the plant, defended the project. “At the beginning, it was hard for the locals to accept the [coal] project but we have slowly found acceptance because we are always with them in community functions and we are assisting them with small development projects,” he said.

Raya Famao, a member of Save Lamu, said that the campaign’s message has been curtailed by Amu Power’s gifts to the people of Lamu. “How can a company that is yet to start operations begin CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities?” said Famao. “CSR is done by companies to give back to the society not to bribe them. Amu Power is bribing people in Lamu so that they can accept the coal project.”