Following protests at a public meeting about a proposed nuclear power plant in Kenya, one person was shot and several residents were arrested. The Kenyan government plans to build a 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant near Bondo, a town in Siaya County near Lake Victoria. Officials, including representatives from the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA), were holding a public consultation meeting in the town on July 24 when the protests started. Dickens Ochieng, a lawyer and community member who attended the meeting, told Mongabay by phone that the landowners invited to the meeting started shouting “Wadagi,” which means “we don’t want the project” in Luo language. “And then one of the police officers who was guarding the government agencies used his firearm and as a result one person was shot on the leg and the meeting turned chaotic instantly,” he said. According to Ochieng, residents of Bondo began throwing stones at police officers, who responded with tear gas. In the days that followed, 17 people were arrested and detained. An official document reviewed by Mongabay shows that the arrested people are now under investigation for assault as well as Kenya’s Prevention of Terrorism Act. Ochieng, who has taken on their legal defense, said there “is an intense government crackdown on people who are opposed to the project.” “As a lawyer, I just keep on telling the community that they have to stand firm, because terrorism charges have nowhere to do with the incident that happened,” he said. “They are meant…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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