By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 8 August 2026— Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) board chairman Prof Larry Gumbe has rejected allegations that the agency is using police investigations and terrorism charges to silence opponents of the proposed Siaya nuclear power project.
Gumbe said the allegations contained in a statement by the Friends of Siaya Against Nuclear Power (FSANP) were based on misrepresentations and ignored repeated efforts by NuPEA to engage critics through dialogue.
He said he had personally reached out to opponents through WhatsApp messages, telephone calls and SMS, inviting them to public forums where they could raise their concerns.
“I have always invited the authors of these allegations to dialogue,” Gumbe said. “We are willing to dialogue with them at an event organised by themselves at their convenience. We are always ready for meaningful engagement.”
His response came after FSANP accused NuPEA and the police of allegedly using prolonged investigations and repeated summons to intimidate community members opposed to the nuclear project.
The organisation has singled out 61-year-old retired public servant and environmental campaigner James Odhiambo Lawi, who it says has been subjected to repeated police summons after his release from custody.
FSANP also alleged that terrorism-related accusations against Lawi and other community members were being used to criminalise peaceful opposition to the proposed nuclear facility.
Gumbe rejected that characterisation.
He said NuPEA had held several public engagements in Siaya since the project was launched, giving opponents an opportunity to question officials and express dissent.
He cited the first major public engagement held at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology on June 26, 2026.
The event was attended by political leaders, members of Parliament, county officials, religious leaders and civil society representatives, Gumbe said.
He also noted that the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga attended the event as chief guest and supported the development of the project.
“After the above launch we have had many peaceful and productive meetings in Siaya,” Gumbe said. “At the meetings opinions have been expressed freely. Those who dissent have been given opportunity to express themselves.”
But he said a subsequent forum was disrupted by people he described as violent.
“Unfortunately, the last forum was disrupted by violent persons,” he said. “They assaulted our staff, disrupted furniture, stoned cars and generally caused mayhem.”
Gumbe said it was therefore misleading to portray every person involved in the confrontation as a peaceful environmental defender.
“How would you refer to such persons? Angels? Peaceful dissenters? Goons?” he asked. Any act of lawlessness and violent attack can qualify for negative profiling by natural instincts, without malice, he claimed.
His remarks directly challenge FSANP's portrayal of the dispute as a campaign of state repression against peaceful citizens.
FSANP had accused Gumbe of using demeaning language against nuclear project opponents after he referred to alleged violent protesters as “goons and fools”.
Gumbe said his comments were made in the context of a wider ideological debate about industrialisation and development.
He said he had repeatedly explained the potential role of nuclear power in providing reliable electricity and supporting industrialisation.
“I have outlined the significance of nuclear power to the world. Its history. Its safety. And all other pertinent questions raised in this group and elsewhere,” he said.
He also invoked historical debates over industrialisation, citing Abdul Rahman Mohamed Babu and Vladimir Lenin in arguing that opposition to industrial development has deep ideological roots.
“It is important to address narodniks now as in the time of Lenin and Babu,” Gumbe said.
The nuclear project has generated growing debate in Siaya, with opponents demanding greater transparency, public participation and disclosure of environmental and planning documents.
FSANP says it has filed Access to Information requests seeking documents relating to environmental assessment, thermal discharge modelling, resettlement arrangements and correspondence with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The group says the requests have not received substantive responses.
Gumbe's response did not directly address each of those document-specific claims.
Instead, he insisted that the agency remained open to scrutiny and discussion.
“I always advocate for frank and respectful engagement amongst comrades,” he said.
He framed the disagreement as a contest of ideas rather than a confrontation between enemies.
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“Through dialogue: You may educate us; and we may engage you,” he said.
The dispute now presents a broader test for how Kenya handles public opposition to major infrastructure and energy projects.
For opponents, the nuclear proposal raises questions about environmental safety, community consent, land, transparency and the long-term consequences of the project.
For NuPEA, nuclear power is being presented as part of Kenya's search for reliable, affordable electricity and a more industrialised economy.
Those positions do not have to produce confrontation.
But allegations of intimidation, violence, terrorism investigations and suppression of dissent require careful scrutiny by the relevant independent institutions.
Equally, peaceful public participation cannot become a cover for violence, intimidation or destruction of property.
The answer should be neither repression nor disorder.
It should be evidence, transparency and dialogue.
For a project of the scale and potential consequences of a nuclear power plant, public confidence is as important as technical expertise.
NuPEA therefore has a significant responsibility to keep the door open.
Its critics have an equally important responsibility to challenge the project peacefully and substantively.
The debate should ultimately be settled by facts, law, science and meaningful public participation.
Gumbe's message is resoundingly clear that NuPEA is willing to engage even as a section of the human rights group claim that no proper public participation has been done in keeping with the dictates of the law, with the team led by Peter Oyoko, an ardent human rights crusader challenging NUPEA to action in public interest and in keeping with the law. They also want reported charges against critics dropped for a common truce as NUPEA continues to seek engagement with the public.
The challenge now is for all sides to ensure that engagement remains open, respectful and free from intimidation — whether by the state, project officials or opponents.
In Siaya, the nuclear debate is unlikely to disappear.
What matters is how Kenya chooses to have it.
"Let's not entangle development into politics," the NUPEA board chairman pleaded.
But Prof Gumbe warned of international independent power producers and anti nuclear power plant agents of discreetly financing critics working in cahoots with some Kenya right defenders ostensibly to derail the project take off. He claimed more than 20,000 jobs would be created when the project takes off with thousands currently absorbed in the construction process.
NuPEA Director of Information, Advocacy and Communication Patricia Ndede reinforces that message.
She acknowledges that public anxiety in Central Sakwa is real, particularly over Lake Victoria, land rights, safety and livelihoods.
The lake, she notes, supports fishing, agriculture and water needs for millions.
Ndede says modern reactor technology incorporates multiple safety systems and that environmental safeguards must govern any eventual project.
She also offers an important qualification.
Siaya, she says, is not a predetermined destination.
The national screening process considered the Indian Ocean, Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana regions. Kilifi, Siaya and Kwale emerged among the candidate sites for further assessment.
Detailed site characterisation will determine suitability.
“If detailed geotechnical surveys show that a specific site in Siaya cannot meet the world's strictest seismic or environmental safety thresholds, we will not have the nuclear power plant there,” Ndede says.
That may be the most important assurance yet.
Science, rather than politics, should determine the final site.
Ndede also says land acquisition must not impoverish affected families. Compensation, resettlement and livelihoods must be addressed before construction.
Public participation, she acknowledges, must also improve.
Residents in Bondo and Lenya village, she says, felt they were being spoken at rather than listened to.
Prof Larry Gumbe Dismisses Claims of ‘Nuclear Persecution’, Says NuPEA Is Ready for Dialogue
The Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) board chair notes that at Siaya meetings, those who dissent to Nuclear plant have been given opportunity to express themselves.