Every person in Kenya is under Kenya laws entitled to a clean and healthy environment and has the duty to safeguard and enhance the environment.The entitlement to a clean and healthy environment under the Kenya laws includes the access by any person in Kenya to the various public elements or segments of the environment for recreational, educational, health, spiritual and cultural purposes.If a person alleges that the entitlement has been, is being or is likely to be contravened in relation to him, then without prejudice to any other action with respect to the same matter which is lawfully available, that person may apply
to the High Court for redress and the High Court may make such orders, issue such writs or give such directions as it may deem appropriate to—
(a) prevent, stop or discontinue any act or omission deleterious to the environment;
(b) compel any public officer to take measures to prevent or discontinue any act or omission deleterious to the environment;
(c) require that any on-going activity be subjected to an environment audit
(d) compel the persons responsible for the environmental degradation to restore the degraded environment as far as practicable to its immediate condition prior to the damage; and
(e) provide compensation for any victim of pollution and the cost of beneficial uses lost as a result of an act of pollution and other losses that are connected with or incidental to the foregoing.
The High Court shall be guided by the following principles of sustainable development;
(a) the principle of public participation in the development of policies, plans and processes for the management of the environment;
(b) the cultural and social principles traditionally applied by any community in Kenya for the management of the environment or natural resources in so far as the same are relevant and are not repugnant to justice and morality or inconsistent with any written law;
(c) the principle of international co-operation in the management of environmental resources share by two or more states;
(d) the principles of intergenerational and intragenerational equity;
(e) the polluter-pays principle; and
(f) the pre-cautionary principle.