Kenyan Advocate Joins ELAW for Killian O. Doherty Environmental Justice Fellowship

We are pleased to announce that Mark Odhiambo Odaga will work with our team as this year’s Killian O. Doherty Environmental Justice Fellow.
Mark is a human rights and environmental justice lawyer in Kenya. He was part of the successful community-led litigation and campaign that stopped a coal-fired power station proposed at the UNESCO world heritage site at Lamu. He is currently part of the Stop EACOP campaign and litigation, working to help communities defend their rights as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline presses onward.
Our team looks forward to collaborating with Mark as he launches a new legal practice that supports local and Indigenous communities using the law to protect the climate and remedy environmental injustice. Among other things, his practice aims to support fisherfolk to safeguard access to their customary fishing sites where they land their boats and sell their catch. These sites have come under threat due to a lack of secure land tenure and an uptick in land grabs, partly caused by development projects such as the Lamu Port.

The Killian O. Doherty Environmental Justice Fellowship will fund Mark to research legal safeguards for the fisherfolk and their boat landing sites. He aims to identify gaps and collaborate with the Law Team to identify legal solutions to help the fishers preserve their way of life and defend against short-sighted development schemes that damage the climate and local ecosystems.
Many thanks to the Doherty Family and all those whose generous support helped make this Killian Fellowship possible!

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