On 11th–12th September 2025, the Centre for Research, Training and Publications (CRTP), through the Environmental Advocacy Support in Extractive Industry (EASEI) Project, held an Environmental Advocacy Training at Bongwe Social Hall in Kwale County. The workshop, facilitated by Ms. Patricia Opande, brought together 27 participants from partner community groups alongside representatives from the county government. The training was guided by specific objectives, which included equipping participants with knowledge of environmental and land degradation, building skills in advocacy strategies and campaign design, exploring sustainable mining practices and alternative livelihoods, strengthening legal literacy and understanding of constitutional and statutory provisions, promoting community engagement and rights-based advocacy approaches, and facilitating the development of community-level advocacy action plans.
The first day focused on mining in Kwale County, highlighting both its benefits and its negative impacts, including flooding, soil erosion, unfair land compensation, and land degradation. Participants also explored advocacy tools and approaches to address these challenges. On the second day, discussions centered on constitutional rights related to the environment, with emphasis on Articles 42, 63, and 69 of the 2010 Constitution. Members practiced applying these rights by drafting reports and strategies to tackle local environmental concerns. The training revealed several pressing issues, including widespread environmental degradation such as deforestation, land degradation, and water pollution. It also highlighted limited legal literacy and awareness of rights, the lack of structured dialogue with county government and mining companies, weak alternative livelihoods that have increased dependence on extractive activities, elite capture and exclusion of marginalized groups from participation forums, and fear of retaliation against environmental defenders.
To address these challenges, participants recommended promoting sustainable livelihoods such as poultry, beekeeping, and eco-tourism, as well as developing simplified Kiswahili toolkits on environmental laws. They further emphasized the need to establish structured forums linking stakeholders, strengthen grassroots watchdog groups, provide legal aid for environmental defenders, and institutionalize monitoring and documentation of advocacy outcomes.
The training achieved several important outcomes. It improved awareness of environmental rights and advocacy strategies among participants and facilitated the development of practical community action plans. It also strengthened the capacity of groups to engage government officials and mining firms, resulted in commitments to form grassroots watchdog groups. and led to the compilation of a draft Kwale Community Advocacy Roadmap based on group presentations. The training concluded with feedback on group reports, leaving participants better equipped with the skills and knowledge to effectively advocate for environmental protection,