Why Kenya should mitigate security risks in oil, gas sector

The fact that the government intends to create an enabling environment for investors to engage profitably and predictably in the exploration, extraction and production of natural resources is not a secret.

Priority seems to have been given to the development of legal and policy regulatory frameworks.

The government through the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and other partners such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are working to fast track among others, the energy Bill and its policy, the review of archaic laws such as the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 1986 and the Mining Act 1987 to ensure the necessary structures are in place for enhanced natural resource governance.

However, despite these noble measures by the government, the issue of security of person and property specific to this sector, do not seem to have been addressed adequately.

This anomaly has occurred despite the fact that all the oil and gas companies operate in historically marginalised and high security risk areas.

These areas have been plagued by incidents of cattle rustling and banditry, community conflicts, proliferation of small arms, presence of militias such as Al-Shaabab and the Mombasa Republican Council, food insecurity, land legacy issues and inadequate policing services.

Disputes

Of late, disputes between some MPs and governors on matters such as who should be consulted about jobs and other local issues have become a growing concern to companies in the upstream sector.

Many firms in these areas in addition to contracting private security service providers also benefits the Administration Police and the Kenya Police Reservists.

This means that officers, who in the past served local communities, have now been contracted by the companies leaving them vulnerable.

It is imperative that the government partners with the civil society, host communities and companies to develop comprehensive security risk framework that incorporates the UN’s guidelines on business, voluntary principles, human rights and security.

The principles require States to take certain steps to ensure that they protect human rights.

They also outline measures that States can take to support companies working in conflict areas such as helping them at the earliest opportunity — usually at the exploration stage — to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights related risks.

States are also required to work with companies to address risks of human rights abuses with focus on gender-based and sexual violence.

The voluntary principles are non-binding tools which were developed in 2000 by governments, companies in the extractive and energy sectors and NGOs.

The principles provide guidelines for companies to maintain safety and security of their operations while ensuring the respect for human rights and humanitarian law.

They are a useful tool for governments such as Kenya, which is working towards fully developing its extractive sector because they aid in the protection of human rights and preventing conflicts. The principles cover three major themes.

First one is carrying out risk assessment which helps to identify security threats and potential human rights abuses.

The last two touch on the interaction of companies with public and private security providers as well as how these relationships could be used to protect human rights.

Kenya could borrow a leaf from the Colombian experience where firms in the extractive and non-extractive sector, NGOs and government came together to form Guias Colombia in 2006.

This initiative aims to develop, promote and implement the guidelines on business and human rights peculiar to Colombia such as security, grievance mechanisms, labour issues, business-community relations, transparency and environment. Colombia incidentally is also the only country in Latin America that is a member of the voluntary principles.

Such multi-stakeholder processes are not a new in Kenya and one needs only look at our past attempts at community policing and making it formal through the National Police Service Act, 2011, Part XI.

The aims of initiating community policing, according to Section 96 of the Act are to develop partnerships with communities, provide a platform for information sharing, promote co-operation, improve transparency and enhance policing services, among others.

The Act also creates a County Policing Authority under Section 97, which is tasked to implement community policing and facilitate training of community policing committees.

Once this authority has been established, one of its main tasks should be to train the committees on how they can work with the oil and gas companies to prevent conflict.

For success to be realised in this sector, the government must address issues of security expeditiously by establishing the necessary community policing structures and initiating a platform for companies and civil society to share information on how best to address the challenges of security and human rights.

Ms Kabiru is a senior human rights officer at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.