Highlights on The Air Quality Regulations 2014

The Air Quality Regulations 2014 provides for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution to ensure clean and healthy ambient healthy ambient air.

The regulations are applicable to:

1. All internal combustion engines
2. All premises, places, operations, or works to which the provisions of the Act and Regulations made thereunder apply and
3. Any other appliance or activity that the Cabinet Secretary may order in the Gazette, specify.

Further to this, the regulations allow for the disposal of refuse so long as it is not used for:

1. Back-burning to control or suppress wildfires;
2. Firefighting rehearsals or drills conducted by fire service agencies;
3. Traditional and cultural burning of savanna grasslands;
4. Burning for purposes of public health protection; and
5. Emissions of air pollutants from all stationary and mobile sources as set out under Part I of the Fifth Schedule.

The regulations prohibit certain forms of air pollution and give guideline on levels of pollution that are permissible. It further provides for controlled areas where pollution is prohibited to certain levels.

The regulations provide for emission licenses and provisional emission license. The Authority will make a decision within 90 days of receipt of the application and the authority should:

1. Notify the applicant of the decision, and give written reasons if the application was unsuccessful;
2. Notify any person who may have complained of the proposed activity; and

• At the request of any person contemplated in paragraph (b), give written reasons for its decision or make public its reasons

In case it is rejected, the application should reapply using the initial application.

In addition, the regulations provide for renewal of the license. When renewing the license, the applicant is expected to provide a compliance plan to the Authority.

To ensure compliance, the Authority will carry out inspections to assess the air quality in accordance with the guidelines set into the regulations. Further to this, the owners or operators of any statutory source that is subject to these regulations should file an emission assessment report with the Authority.

Anyone who contravenes the provisions of the regulations commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of Five Hundred Thousand Shillings or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months. Where the Authority demonstrates that a person is not complying with any of the standards set out in these Regulations, the Authority may charge such person a penalty of ten thousand Kenya shillings for every parameter not being complied with, per day, until such person demonstrates full compliance with the relevant standard related to such parameter.