Religious leaders have joined their counterparts in Tanzanian and Ugandan in asking the government to stop the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

 The clerics said the project was an exploitation of the region’s biodiversity to benefit multinationals and other foreign entities.

Under the Greenfaith umbrella, they called on President William Ruto to mobilise other governments in the region to stop the project.

So far 1,000 people have been displaced from their ancestral homes to pave way for the longest single crude oil pipeline in the world. It runs on a 1,443km stretch from Kabaale, Hoima district in Uganda to the Chongoleani Peninsula near Tanga Port in Tanzania. “We are joining our brothers and sisters of faith in Tanzania and Uganda in opposing this project,” said Bishop John Warari of the Grace Tabernacle and a member of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya.

Fossil fuels

Reflecting on the current drought in the country, Warari accused the multinationals behind the project of little interest in the plight of locals, saying they were only interested in profits. “Destroying biodiversity given to us by God for posterity is unacceptable. We are calling for a stoppage of the project,” he said.

The use of fossil fuels is on the rise, and it’s interfering with nature, he noted.

The religious leaders were meeting in Nairobi for a strategy building on phasing out fossil fuels.

According to Meryne Warah, GreenFaith co-founder, the meeting is part of a series of efforts to build capacity of faith leaders and other stakeholders around EACOP for effective advocacy actions against the project. “We are all gathered here to build a force to continue pushing for this project to be stopped. It is the longest and hottest burning crude oil line in the world.” she posed.