01/09/2026
✊🏿 SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADE OTIENO OMBOK
STOP THE CRIMINALISATION AND INTIMIDATION OF LAND & ECOLOGICAL DEFENDERS
KISUMU/NAIROBI — 1 SEPTEMBER 2026
The Social Justice Movement in solidarity with The Friends of Siaya Anti-Nuclear Plant (FSANP) is alarmed by the arrest of Comrade Otieno Ombok, an FSANP community representative who has been at the forefront of the campaign for access to information, transparency and accountability concerning the proposed Siaya Nuclear Energy Project.
Comrade Ombok was arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) this morning inside the Bondo Court premises, where he had gone to make a solidarity appearance in support of the 19 Lenya Kajohn environmental and land defenders appearing before the court.
At the time of this statement, no formal charge or clear reason for his arrest has been communicated to his family or legal representatives. We therefore demand the immediate disclosure of the legal basis for his detention, access to legal counsel and full respect for his constitutional rights.
THIS ARREST DID NOT HAPPEN IN A VACUUM
Comrade Ombok's arrest comes less than 48 hours after an FSANP delegation led by him met with the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) in Kisumu, seeking accountability and transparency regarding NUPEA's proposed nuclear project in Central Sakwa Ward.
The meeting took place as the statutory period for NUPEA to respond to FSANP's Access to Information review process approached its expiration.
The timing is therefore deeply concerning.
It is also part of an increasingly disturbing pattern surrounding the nuclear debate in Siaya.
Nineteen environmental and land defenders from Lenya Kajohn are facing criminal charges arising from events surrounding a public forum that the affected community rejected as inadequate and non-consultative.
At the same time, Comrade Okakah Onyango, a grassroots land and ecological justice activist participating in the national debate on nuclear energy, has reported receiving threatening communications following heated exchanges concerning the nuclear programme.
When activists demanding access to public information are arrested, when community defenders are subjected to criminal proceedings, and when individuals participating in legitimate public debate receive threatening messages, the issue ceases to be an isolated dispute between activists and an institution. It becomes a question about the state of civic space and constitutional democracy in Kenya.
ACCESS TO INFORMATION IS NOT A CRIME
The activists involved in this campaign are asking fundamental questions about a major public project:
What are most ecological alternatives?
Where are the documents?
Who made the decisions?
What are the environmental implications?
How will communities be affected?
Who will finance the project?
What safeguards exist?
And have affected communities genuinely participated in decisions concerning their land, water and livelihoods?
These are legitimate questions in a constitutional democracy.
Articles 35, 37 and 47 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 protect the rights to access information, peaceful assembly and fair administrative action.
These rights do not disappear because the subject matter is politically sensitive or because powerful institutions find criticism uncomfortable.
As stated by FSANP's Odhiambo Oyoko:
“The arrest of Otieno Ombok is consistent with a clear pattern we have witnessed since this campaign began: NUPEA and its allies are systematically using the police and the criminal justice system to intimidate, harass, and coerce activists who are simply demanding transparency and the right to information.”
We therefore call upon the Inspector General of Police, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary to urgently scrutinise the circumstances surrounding Comrade Ombok's arrest.
OUR DEMANDS
1. Immediate disclosure of the grounds for Comrade Otieno Ombok's arrest and detention.
2. Immediate and unhindered access to legal counsel and family.
3. If there is a legitimate charge, he must be brought before a competent court in accordance with the Constitution and the law. If there is no lawful basis for his detention, he must be released immediately and unconditionally.
4. An independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his arrest inside the Bondo Court premises.
5. An end to police harassment, surveillance, intimidation and criminalisation of environmental and land defenders.
6. Withdrawal of malicious or unsupported charges against the 19 Lenya Kajohn defenders and respect for their right to peaceful civic participation.
7. Full compliance by NUPEA with the Commission on Administrative Justice's Access to Information process and disclosure of the documents requested by affected communities.
8. Genuine, meaningful and informed public participation before any further decisions concerning the proposed Siaya nuclear project are advanced.
THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT OTIENO
Comrade Otieno Ombok must not be left to face this situation alone.
Neither should the Lenya Kajohn 19.
Neither should Comrade Okakah Onyango.
And neither should any community defender who finds themselves targeted for questioning powerful institutions.
The growing vulnerability of under-resourced grassroots activists is itself a serious concern. Frontline defenders are often expected to absorb enormous personal and security risks while the institutions that claim to support civic space remain unable—or sometimes unwilling—to provide meaningful protection, legal accompaniment and rapid response.
Solidarity must therefore move beyond statements after arrests happen. We need preventative protection, legal support, documentation, digital security, rapid response and sustained accompaniment for defenders at risk.
We call upon human rights organisations, environmental movements, legal organisations, progressive institutions, journalists and comrades across Kenya to stand with Comrade Otieno Ombok and the Lenya Kajohn 19.
The answer to a citizen demanding information cannot be a handcuff.
The answer to a community demanding participation cannot be intimidation.
The answer to criticism cannot be criminalisation.
If the project is in the public interest, then transparency should strengthen it—not threaten it.
The people of Siaya have a right to ask questions about their land, their water, their environment and their future.
You cannot criminalise a question.
You cannot arrest an entire community.
You cannot silence a movement by targeting its organisers.
We demand Justice for Otieno Ombok.
We demand justice for the Lenya Kajohn 19.
We demand protection for environmental and land defenders.
We demand access to information.
We demand meaningful public participation.
The Lake Basin stands with its defenders.
May truth and social justice be our defender.
Aluta Continua ✊🏾
✊🏿 SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADE OTIENO OMBOK
✊🏿 SOLIDARITY WITH THE LENYA KAJOHN 19
✊🏿 DEFEND THE DEFENDERS
