Base Titanium to decommission Kwale mining site despite protest from villagers

Base Titanium plant in Kwale County.[Robert Menza, Standard]

The High Court has allowed Base Titanium to decommission its heavy machinery after winding up 16 years of mining in Kwale County amid protests by locals over environmental degradation.

Justice Lucas Naikuni allowed Base Titanium to continue with the decommissioning process and rehabilitation of the said mining site at Msambweni, Kinondo Village, Kwale County.

Justice Naikuni set aside his conservatory orders issued to the villagers of Kinondo on February 26, 2026, stopping the decommissioning processes and rehabilitation over alleged environmental degradation.

The judge said that although the villagers' ex parte application was merited in principle and justified the grant of urgent conservatory relief, the subsequent disclosures by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and Base Titanium of regulatory compliance and the existence of an approved closure plan necessitate an inter partes review of the interim orders. 

"The Court is therefore inclined to vary the orders to permit limited, safety-critical decommissioning activities under strict conditions, while preserving the substratum of the petition and ensuring transparency through disclosure and independent audit. Therefore, the application by the petitioners is found to lack merit, and hence it is hereby dismissed," said Justice Naikuni.

He said his orders are to expressly permit and facilitate certain limited, safety-critical, and public interest decommissioning processes and rehabilitation activities to be strictly and fully complied with and undertaken by Base Titanium.

The judge said that the decommissioning process and rehabilitation are to be under strict scientific and legal conditions and guidance of the provisions of the Constitution under the Environmental Management Co-ordination Amendment Act, 2015.

The judge ordered base titanium to ensure that there are disclosed, clear, transparent, and accountable decommissioning and rehabilitation activities speimplementation plan. Entertainment Plan.

The residents and community members within the Msambweni Kinondo area (Kwale County) sued the Ministry of Mining, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Base Titanium Limited, and the Kwale County Government over environmental degradation from the decommissioning process.

The residents, through Mwijuma Kibwana, said that the community had, for generations, depended upon the surrounding land, water sources, soil systems, and coastal ecology for settlement, livelihood, culture, and survival.

He said that the threatened destruction of this environment was therefore not merely physical loss but an existential assault on community life itself.

"Despite repeated pleas for transparency, disclosure, and lawful compliance, decommissioning works involving heavy machinery, land disturbance, dismantling of infrastructure, dust emission, and ecological disruption continued unabated and were being carried out perilously close to human habitation and community resources," said Kibwana.

He said there was no comprehensive mine-closure plan, rehabilitation framework, post-mining land-use plan, or independent environmental audit that had been disclosed to the villagers.

Kibwana said that the decommissioning process was shrouded in opacity, uncertainty, and grave danger. 

The villagers said that the absence of these statutory safeguards created a real, immediate, and scientifically foreseeable risk of groundwater contamination, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and long–term instability harms that were not theoretical but imminent.

"Environmental destruction of this nature was irreversible, cumulative, and intergenerational, and no monetary compensation, however substantial, could restore poisoned water, vanished ecosystems, destroyed livelihoods, or lost community heritage.

Unless the Honourable Court intervened, Base Titanium could complete or substantially advance the decommissioning, thereby irretrievably altering the physical environment, destroying critical scientific evidence, and rendering the petition hollow, academic, and incapable of meaningful remedy," said Kibwana.

The locals said there existed a genuine and alarming danger that, if unrestrained, Base Titanium could transfer assets, discharge environmental liabilities, secure closure certification, or otherwise evade remediation, thereby permanently defeating accountability and undermining the authority of the Honourable Court.

Kibwana said that failure to ensure public participation, transparency, and lawful environmental governance violated the most fundamental constitutional values of human dignity, accountability, sustainable development, and protection of vulnerable communities.

"Without immediate court-supervised preservation of evidence and independent environmental assessment, there existed a serious risk that critical documents, monitoring data, and environmental proof could be destroyed, concealed, or rendered useless, thereby crippling the court's ability to deliver justice," said Kibwana.

However, NEMA's Director of Environmental Compliance, David Ong'are, said that the authority had issued a licence for the mining and transportation of titanium to Base Titanium on June 30, 2005.

Ong'are said the licences covered the entire life cycle of the project, including mining, operations, decommissioning, and rehabilitation, and that public participation initially undertaken by the proponent covered the entire cycle.

He said there was no law requiring a fresh public participation exercise before rehabilitation and decommissioning, since these formed part of the project cycle as contained in the environmental management plan.

The director said that Base Titanium had submitted terms of reference for the closure and decommissioning of the Kwale mine, which NEMA approved on June 26, 2024, requiring submission of a mine closure and decommissioning plan.

"NEMA subsequently received and approved the Mine Closure and Decommissioning Plan in September 2024. Although not legally required, NEMA had directed Base Titanium to undertake dissemination workshops to appraise stakeholders and communities of expert monitoring studies on soil rehabilitation, biodiversity restoration, water quality, wildlife diversity, livelihoodsassurance", re assurance," said Ong'stoppingid stoppage of decommissioning and restorative efforts exposed the environment to significant risk of uncontrolled degradation, particularly since the land was already extensively disturbed by lawful mining activities, the final phase of which concluded in December 2024.

Ong'are said cessation of rehabilitation works heightened risks of soil erosion, land instability, and irreparable environmental damage," said Ong'are.

He said infrastructure removal was being done in line with the approved closure plan to pave the way for complete land rehabilitation and restoration, including decontamination of potential pollutants.

Ong'are said NEMA had written to the Director of Mines in May 2025 requesting a grant of a temporary land tenure of not less than 15 years to enable completion of restoration works, ensure public and environmental safety, facilitate ecosystem recovery, and fulfil obligations under the closure plan.

He said that the mined area contained a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) covering approximately 270 hectares, with 45 million tonnes of slime, where 200,000 trees had been planted to reduce water volume. 

Ong'are said that stabilisation of the TSF would take up to 15 years.

"An unstable TSF posed significant risks to downstream communities in the event of embankment failure, which could cause severe environmental disaster and social impacts," said Ong'are.

He said the locals moved the court seeking production of documents, which they could have accessed by visiting NEMA’s offices.

The director said no evidence had been produced demonstrating environmental degradation arising from decommissioning to warrant the issuance of conservatory orders.

According to Base Titanium General Manager John Vickers, land shaping and topsoil deposition for all disturbed areas from mining are complete, save for the processing facilities area that encompasses a total of 1,109 hectares of rehabilitated land.

Vickers said the rehabilitation process has resulted in planting more than 1,060,702 trees drawn from over 370 indigenous species.

He said the decommissioning and rehabilitation process had cost the mining company over Sh4.6 billion.

"For avoidance of doubt, rehabilitation of the processing facilities area can only occur once dismantling and decommissioning of the process plant is complete," said Vickers.