(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

Peasants’ Conference against Land Grabbing in Nyéléni Village, near Selingué, Mali,
in November 2011. CNOP and other organizations are currently documenting the case
and the violations of the communities’ rights in detail.
4.3. A country: Kenya
Land grab in Kenya has also been studied by several organisations, including the
Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) which has been active in the country. 145 In
summer 2011, between the end of July and the beginning of August, four
organisations including the Bielefeld University and FIAN Germany, undertook a
research mission to Kenya to investigate current and potential impacts of climate
change on human rights, as well as human rights violations in the context of agrofuel
expansion. 146 The findings below are based on this and EAFF’s studies.
4.3.1. Background on Kenya’s biofuel strategy
In 2006 the Kenyan Ministry of Energy established the National Biofuels Committee to
coordinate the activities of stakeholders in the agrofuel sector and to facilitate the
development of sector strategies. By May 2008, a biodiesel strategy (2008-2012) had
been developed and in August 2008 the Kenya Biodiesel Association was established.
These efforts are to be followed by a comprehensive national agrofuel strategy,
although no such policy (or the other documents) is currently available to the broad
public.
Supported by international donors and other actors, several activities have already
been carried out or are underway to promote agrofuel production in Kenya. For
instance, in 2008, the German Technical Cooperation together with the Kenyan
Ministry of Agriculture commissioned a study entitled A Roadmap For Biofuels in
Kenya, which concludes that “Kenya could become the biofuel powerhouse of East
Africa.” The European Commission currently supports the expansion of jatropha
farming by a Malindi agrofuel cluster on the coast.
Agrofuel is regarded by the Kenyan government and its supporters as a suitable
approach for tackling several problems at once, such as reducing the country’s
dependence on fuel imports and saving expenses, and reducing the national
consumption of wood fuel and the widespread practice of charcoal burning, which
would decrease deforestation and soil degradation. Moreover, agrofuels would
contribute to revenues from carbon trading by cultivating jatropha, because jatropha
would be considered as tree cover under the CDM, and to increasing rural
employment. It is speculated that this might even contribute to the reduction of HIV,
because fewer women would be forced into prostitution thanks to cash crop revenues.
Finally, ethanol production plays a crucial role for the future of the Kenyan sugar
sector. The sugar cane industry is currently not competitive and will be less so with the
end of the safeguards under the COMESA free trade agreement at the end of 2011.
The prices of the European Union for imported sugar are expected to decrease in
2007 due to the EU Sugar Reforms under the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Thus
ethanol is an attractive option for diversifying the revenue base of the Kenyan sugar
industry and the outgrower farmers and millers depending on it. Today, apart from
integrating the sugar sector into the energy sector, the Kenyan government is
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