The National Environment Tribunal: A Review of its First Decade

This review addresses Kenya's National Environment Tribunal (NET), one of several organs created in the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act. Although the NET was conceived as an appellate Tribunal, it can also play a role as an advisor to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA). Parties can and do appeal to the Tribunal against actions or omissions by the NEMA, its committees, the Director-General and staff. In addition to parties, other appellants include anyone aggrieved by such actions or inactions. During its first term (three years), the Tribunal organised its work, established its Rules of Procedure, and familiarised itself with the practices of similar tribunals or courts from other jurisdictions mainly in Asia and the Pacific region (India, Bangladesh and Australia's New South Wales). It also held seminars and workshops in selected towns in Kenya. In the medium and longer term, the Tribunal is expanding to swiftly deal with immense challenges -- to meet social, economic and environmental needs in strategic planning and economic, social and cultural assessments, not to mention ecological zoning within and between the counties.