Nothern Block Residents Limited & another v National Environment Management Authority & 2 others (Environment and Planning Judicial Review E001 of 2023) [2024] KEELC 7196 (KLR)

Section 58(7) and (8) of PLUPA requires an applicant for development permission to notify the public and invite objections, and section 61 requires the approving authority to consider public comments. The impugned PLUPA licence application was submitted on 8th November 2022 and approved on 13th January 2023, yet no evidence of a newspaper publication or on-site notice was placed before the court, nor were public views annexed to the approval, breaching Article 47.

The 3rd Respondent held two meetings (13th October 2022 and 7th February 2023) attended by Kitisuru residents and distributed questionnaires through the estate office. Following BAT Kenya, public participation may include written submissions and need not be oral hearings; the venue of the meeting away from the site did not invalidate it, and the Applicants' failure to respond to questionnaires cannot be laid at the proponent's door.

Sections 42 and 43 concern modification and revision of a County Physical and Land Use Development Plan. What was challenged was a development notification approval to a developer, so the Applicants' invocation of those sections failed, leaving section 61 as the operative provision.

Judicial review proceeds without viva voce evidence; the Applicants did not prove the property's status in September 2022 or the nature of loss suffered. A breach of the law does not per se demonstrate injury, and speculative claims of environmental degradation required evidence not adduced.