Person: Gachenga, Elizabeth
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Gachenga
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Elizabeth
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- PublicationLegal and policy frameworks for climate-friendly energy generation in Africa : energy security for future development(Macmillan Education Namibia, 2016) Gachenga, Elizabeth; Ruppel, O. C; Althusmann, B.Energy security is the sine qua non in stabilizing democracy and economic growth, and in reducing poverty and the impacts of climate change. This writing investigates energy security and renewable energies in sub-Saharan Africa, pointing out practical opportunities and regulatory challenges from the perspective of an African expert.
- PublicationLegal and policy frameworks for climate-friendly energy generation in Africa : energy security for future development(Macmillan Education Namibia, 2015) Gachenga, Elizabeth; Paul Martin; Sadeq Z. Bigdeli; Trevor Daya-Winterbottom; Willemien du Plessis; Amanda KennedyEnergy security is one of the most important future challenges for the international agenda of security, peace, and stability worldwide. Increasing energy supply needs and the aim of achieving greater energy independence are playing a mounting role in politics, not only in the United States, Europe, Russia, China and India, but also in Africa as the continent with the highest potential for energy resources for the future. The quest for control and commercialisation of energy resources is also a reality in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria and Angola are the biggest oil-exporting countries after the countries of the Middle East. Namibia is one of the biggest uranium-exploiting countries, while Tanzania may in future become one of the most important gas-exporting African countries to world markets. The United Nations forecasts that the African population will be around 2 billion people in 2050, and therefore the expanding demand for energy will be one of the challenges with which Africa is faced, along with poverty reduction, food security, water security and combating the impacts of climate change. But Africa’s challenges are also world challenges, because energy security is a global priority, with global markets, interests and needs. More than ever, a reliable discussion about the importance of coordinating secure energy supplies worldwide, and especially the impact on Africa, is essential for the future of this continent, as part of the international energy security structure. The African Union represents a continent which is faced with different aims, security interests and needs, if one compares the destabilising developments over the past 10 years in the north, south, east and west of Africa. Which path will Africa take in respect of rapidly growing energy demands on the continent – the European or the Asian path?
- PublicationGoverning the commons through customary law systems of water governance(CEESP and IUCN, 2014) Gachenga, ElizabethThe resilience of customary law systems of natural resource governance in many parts of the world lends credence to Ostrom’s theory on the governance of commons. Ostrom argued that resource users who enjoy relative autonomy in the design of rules for governing and managing common-pool resources, frequently achieve better economic (as well as more equitable) outcomes than when experts do this for them.2 In support of this theory and acknowledging that most common pool resource governance regimes are based on a customary law system, Bosselman has sought to demonstrate a link between customary law systems and positive outcomes for sustainable development.3 Using a case study of the customary law system of water governance of the Marakwet community of Kenya, this paper tests and builds on the design principles and tools developed by Ostrom, to study normative institutions in a dynamic environment.4 The paper proposes an analytical framework that helps identify the features that strengthen customary institutions and ensure their adaptability and resource sustainability. This exercise illustrates the parallels between commons governance and customary law governance of natural resources.
- PublicationCustomary law systems for water governance in Kenya(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015-07-31) Gachenga, ElizabethIn many jurisdictions including Kenya, the term ‘law’ is generally assumed to refer to enacted rules emanating from the state. Consequently, legal systems for water resource governance are considered largely as consisting of statutory law – rules enacted by state organs. Nonetheless, in many countries aspects of water resource management, particularly at the local level, include systems of rules that are beyond the scope of statutory frameworks, with local users developing informal norms and institutions to govern their water resources. This chapter uses the term ‘customary law’ to refer to these informal/ non-statutory normative and institutional frameworks. Customary law systems for natural resource governance continue to exist in many countries. The resilience of customary water governance regimes has led water law practitioners and researchers in the last two decades to acknowledge that these regimes constitute a factor to be reckoned with when preparing ‘modern’ legislation for water resource governance. Research has demonstrated that in some cases, their resilience is the result of an inherent adaptive capacity that makes customary law systems more sustainable than state developed systems. Further, as these customary governance forms are self-developed, they represent a more democratic process of development of law and thus are more likely to be successful at achieving sustainability.
- PublicationKenya’s Water Act (2016) : real devolution or simply the ‘same script, different cast’(Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2019) Gachenga, Elizabeth; Gachenga, ElizabethThe debate surrounding the enactment of Kenya’s Water Act (2016) and its relationship with its predecessor, the Water Act (2002), brings to mind the lyrics of a contemporary pop duet, ‘Same script, different cast’. As the jilted girl attempts to forewarn the current girl of the hurtful ways of her former boyfriend, the latter resists arguing he has changed. To persuade the impressionable new girl to see beyond the façade of the apparent change, the ex-girlfriend uses the expression ‘same script, different cast’ repeatedly, to demonstrate that all that has changed is the actors. In a bid to align the Water Act (2002) with the Constitution of Kenya (2010) (Constitution) and particularly to achieve the devolution enshrined in the Constitution, the Water Act 2016 was enacted following a long drawn out process beginning with the first draft Water Bill of 2012. Despite the amendments brought about by the new Act, critics argue that the Water Act (2016) is at most a superficial modification of the Water Act (2002) albeit with renamed institutions, thus evoking the parallel with the song.
- PublicationGender dimensions of customary water resource governance : Marakwet case study(Weaver Press, 2015) Gachenga, ElizabethThis book approaches water and sanitation as an African gender and human rights issue. Empirical case studies from Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe show how coexisting international, national and local regulations of water and sanitation respond to the ways in which different groups of rural and urban women gain access to water for personal, domestic and livelihood purposes. The authors, who are lawyers, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists, explore how women cope in contexts where they lack secure rights, and participation in water governance institutions, formal and informal. The research shows how women – as producers of family food – rely on water from multiple sources that are governed by community based norms and institutions which recognize the right to water for livelihood. How these ‘common pool water resources’ – due to protection gaps in both international and national law – are threatened by large-scale development and commercialization initiatives, facilitated through national permit systems, is a key concern. The studies demonstrate that existing water governance structures lack mechanisms which make them accountable to poor and vulnerable waters users on the ground, most importantly women. Our findings thus underscore the need to intensify measures to hold states accountable, not just in water services provision, but in assuring the basic human right to clean drinking water and sanitation; and also to protect water for livelihoods.
- PublicationKenya's water act : opportunities for integration of customary institutions of water governance through water resources users associations and water service providers(LawText, 2011) Gachenga, ElizabethThe need to develop sustainable systems for water resource governance in an environment of increasing scarcity and climatic variability has led to the re-evaluation of institutional frameworks. There has been a growing appreciation of the need to coordinate institutions involved in order to achieve sustainable water resource governance. Law and regulatory frameworks for water governance in some countries face the challenge of integrating parallel institutional arrangements such as community-based or customary institutions with statutory institutions. The provision for water users associations (WUAs) in the water statutes of several developing countries is an example of the attempt to bring these parallel institutions into the statutory framework. By recognizing WUAs, the statutes provide pre-existing institutions with the opportunity, upon registration, to participate in water resource governance issues. It is argued that this makes them a potential tool for integrating pre-existing customary institutions into the statutory system and in some way providing an interface between statutory and customary law systems. In Kenya's Water Act, the concept of WUAs is embodied in Water Resources Users Associations (WRUAs) and to some extent in Water Service Providers (WSPs). This article analyses the extent to which WRUAs and WSPs are effective in integrating customary institutions into statutory frameworks using a case study of the customary water resource governance system of the Marakwet.
- PublicationStein’s ethic of care: an alternative perspective to reflections on women lawyering(Routledge publishing, 2011) Gachenga, ElizabethThe book features significant and timely contributions which take contemporary and non-mainstream perspectives on the current and future shape of the legal profession. The essays not only describe the rapidly changing profession but canvas different approaches to scholarship on the legal profession. The collection seeks to explore a diverse and contextualised profession from a number of angles. Authors examine how the public sees lawyers and how lawyers see their own profession; how we practise law and how this practice shapes lawyers; how such cultural and professional practice intersects with institutional structures of the law to create certain legal outcomes; and how we regulate the legal profession to modify or institute ethical practice. The volume provides insights into legal culture and ethics from the perspective of authors from Australia, Canada, England, the United States, New Zealand and Kenya – a diversity of national perspectives that give valuable insights into developments in the profession at the local and global level. It also illustrates diversity within the profession by tracing differing professional career trajectories based on raced or gendered barriers, alternative ethical strategies and the impact of organisational cultures in which lawyers practice.