IELRC Kenya Office

 PO Box 2394 KNH
 00202 Nairobi, Kenya
 Tel:  +254 (20)375 42 06
 Fax: +254 (20)374 42 84
 Email: nairobi @ ielrc.org

 Physical delivery address:
 University of Nairobi
 Faculty of Law
 Parklands Campus
 Parklands Road
 Nairobi

Kenya Office

Kenya is a strategically important country in the Greater Horn of Africa Region. The location of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi has catapulted environmental law issues to a high level of importance.

IELRC Kenya seeks to address environmental issues from a national and international perspective. Given the proliferation of international environmental agreements and Kenya’s membership thereto, IELRC’s discourse links local and national issues to the global arena.

Besides research on the environment, the Kenya office of the IELRC carries out research on gender issues, biotechnology and intellectual property rights. We link the discourses in the different fields to have a synergistic frame of reference. Consequently, access to environmental resources for women is as much our concern as access to new technologies by developing countries and communities of farmers.

The focus in the environmental law area is on:

• Law and the management of biological diversity;
• Property rights and environmental resources;
• The role of international environmental agreements on land and resource rights;
• Environment, conflict and cooperation;
• The role of civil society in the management of transboundary water resources focusing on the River Nile;
• Mapping the Environment Dynamic of the Conflict in the Great Lakes Region;
• Access to justice in environmental decision-making;
• and Wildlife law and policy.

The focus on gender issues is on:

• Engendering law and policy reform;
• Access, Control and Ownership of Land and Resources;
• Challenging the Dominant Discourse and Changing Paradigms on Women’s Rights to Land and Resources;
• The interface between formal and informal norm-creating and enforcing institutions and their impact on women’s rights in agricultural and pastoral communities.

The focus on biotechnology is on:

• The impact of intellectual property protection and access to biotechnology for small scale farmers;
• Regulatory frameworks for Genetically Modified Organisms in African countries;
• and Legal frameworks for liability and redress in biotechnology research, development and commercialisation in Africa.

Recent Publications

Following God's Constitution: The Gender Dimension in the Ogiek Claim to Mau Forest Complex

Women, Land Rights and the Environment: The Kenyan Experience

Environment For Development - The Human Dimension

Gender, Conflict and Regional Security

From Conflict to Cooperation in the Management of Transboundary Waters: The Nile Experience

The Impact of International Treaties on Land and Resource Rights

Towards a Liability and Redress System under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: A Review of the Kenya National Legal System

The Coverage of Gender Issues in the Draft Bill of the Constitution of Kenya 2002: Have the Hens Finally Come Home to Roost for Kenyan Women?