Efforts. Researchers collecting samples of water from Kisumu Resort on
the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya. PHOTOS BY RACHEL MABALA
Five Kenyans
have sued the Ugandan government for allegedly failing to control floods
around the shores of Lake Victoria, resulting in displacement of people
and damage to their property.
Former president of the
Law Society of Kenya, Isaac Okero, and four others are accusing Uganda
of violating their fundamental human rights by breaching the EAC Treaty
and the Nile Basin Comprehensive Framework Agreement on how much water
Kampala is supposed to release from Lake Victoria.
They
have enjoined the East African Community (EAC) and the Lake Victoria
Basin Commission in the suit, while Kenya and Tanzania governments are
named as interested parties.
“As citizens of Kenya, who
reside in Kisumu and are owners of real property located within the
vicinity of the shores of the Lake, we have been greatly inconvenienced
by the decision by Uganda,” says Mr Okero in the court filings. “As
applicants we plead for the prayers and orders that Uganda is
responsible for the compensation of loss and/or damage suffered by the
applicants.
Order that loss and/or damage suffered by
the applicants assessed by the court are paid by Uganda.” The five say
that Uganda’s breach has caused flooding that has damaged property and
displaced more than 50,000 people around the Lake. They accuse Eskom
Uganda Ltd, the biggest hydro electricity generating company in the
country, of increasing or reducing the volumes of water flowing from the
lake based on how much is needed to meet Uganda’s electricity demand.
They say the Owen Falls dam, now known as Nalubaale Dam, was built in
1954 as part of a hydropower station in Jinja after Uganda and Egypt
signed agreements that the East African country would not do anything to
interfere with the flow of the Nile, the world’s longest river.
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