Legal battle against controversial oil pipeline faces another setback

A critical legal case filed by four East African NGOs against a controversial oil pipeline is facing yet another delay, but the NGOs say they remain hopeful.

“What we need is for the court to hear the case on its merit, and we believe we have presented good evidence,” Dickens Kamugisha, CEO of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), told Mongabay.

In November 2020, AFIEGO and the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT), both from Uganda, Natural Justice (Kenya), and the Centre for Strategic Litigation (Tanzania) filed a case with the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to halt construction of the East African crude oil pipeline. Known as EACOP, the $5 billion project is led by French oil giant TotalEnergies and involves state-owned companies from China, Uganda and Tanzania.

The NGOs allege that the project violates Ugandan, Tanzanian and regional laws protecting human rights and the environment, as well as breaches the two countries’ climate commitments.

Kamugisha said they filed the case with the EACJ because the project’s impacts were cutting across the borders of Uganda and Tanzania: communities have been displaced without adequate compensation or sufficient public participation, and the pipeline threatens critical ecosystems like Lake Victoria.

However, the plaintiffs faced a setback at the first hearing in November 2023. Tanzania and Uganda argued the NGOs should have filed their complaint within 60 days of the signing of agreements in 2017, not three years later. The court agreed that the time for objections had lapsed and dismissed the case.

But David Kabanda, a human rights lawyer from CEFROHT representing the NGOs, said they only learnt about the project when the Ugandan government briefed the media in 2020. “All of these agreements are under lock and key, we have never read them.”

The NGOs filed an appeal, arguing for the case to be heard on its merit. During the appeal hearing on Nov. 15, Tanzania’s lawyers said the NGOs hadn’t submitted certain documents. The court postponed the hearing, asking the documents to be resubmitted by Nov. 29, which the NGOs have now done.

“These are delaying tactics that they have played before,” Kabanda said. The appellate court has granted them time for oral submissions, he added, and they’re awaiting a new hearing date.

The delays, however, further impact the communities, Kamugisha said.

“Many people are being displaced; the government of Uganda has been filing cases against poor people who have no capacity to hire lawyers to defend themselves, and they are getting eviction and demolition orders against those poor people,” he said. “They are arresting, detaining, harassing, intimidating NGOs and civil societies and human rights groups.”

Yet both Kabanda and Kamugisha say they’re hopeful.

“Our case is very strong,” Kabanda said. “Yes, there was this hiccup, but we are confident that we will get the judgment in our favor.”

This article by Shreya Dasgupta was first published by Mongabay.com on 29 November 2024. Lead image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

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