Reconceptualising the Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment in Kenya

The Need to Move from an Anthropocentric View to a Bicentric View

Abstract

States around the world are progressively protecting environmental rights. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provides for environmental rights under Articles 42, 69 and 70. However, this study argues that there is need to reconceptualise the right to a clean and healthy environment as established under Article 42, as the right is geared towards human utility rather than intrinsic environmental protection. Thus, the right is shrouded with anthropocentric concerns which may be construed as insufficient in the protection of natural resources, ecosystems and other non-human species for their ecological and intrinsic value. Accordingly, the study examines the right to a clean and healthy environment as envisaged in the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and, from that context, assesses the efficacy of anthropocentric environmental rights in environmental conservation highlighting the potential challenges faced in their implementation. As a way forward, the study recommends bicentric environmental rights as an alternative to anthropocentric environmental rights. The study realises its objectives through the use of case law and literature review.