EACOP Case: Court Dismisses Suit on Procedural Grounds, Shuts Out Impacted Communities

By: Abudu Olalekan

This hurts. The East African Court of Justice just told millions of people their lives don’t matter.

On Wednesday, November 26, the EACJ’s Appellate Division crushed hopes for justice. Four civil society groups had challenged the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline project. The court? They wouldn’t even look at the evidence. Too late, they said. Case dismissed.

Let me tell you what happened here.

Back in 2020, these organizations – Natural Justice from Kenya, Uganda’s AFIEGO and CEFROHT, plus Tanzania’s Centre for Strategic Litigation – they tried to do something. They saw communities suffering. Water sources threatened. People losing their land. So they went to court. But here’s the kicker: the governments had signed those EACOP agreements years earlier, in secret basically. Communities only found out when bulldozers showed up.

The judges – Justice Nestor Kayobera leading the pack, along with Justices Anita Mugeni, Kathurima M’Inot, Cheboriona Barishaki, and Omar Othman Makungu – they all agreed. Sorry, you’re too late. East African Community law says you got 60 days to file. Doesn’t matter that nobody knew about these agreements until way after.

Justice Kayobera actually said “any sane person” would see the case was filed late. Sane person? Tell that to Recheal Tugume from Hoima. She’s watched her community get torn apart. “The court has shut its doors,” she says. Can you blame her anger?

This isn’t just about paperwork. We’re talking about 331 million East Africans here. Lake Victoria – fourty million people depend on it – sits right in the pipeline’s path. In Congo, oil spills are already poisoning lakes. Fishermen can’t fish. Communities cant drink the water. But the court won’t hear it because of a technicality.

Zaki Mamdoo from StopEACOP doesn’t mince words: “This isn’t neutrality. It’s choosing oil companies over people.” He’s right. The court could’ve examined the actual harms – the land grabs, environmental disasters, human rights violations. International groups have documented all of it. Instead? Door slammed shut.

The judges did throw one small bone. They overturned the lower court’s order making the CSOs pay the governments’ legal costs. Big victory, right?

Here’s what burns me most. Dickens Kamugisha from AFIEGO calls it perfectly – a “travesty” that leaves communities at the mercy of “greedy corporations.” Elizabeth Kariuki from Natural Justice talks about families who lost everything, watching their ecosystems disappear. These aren’t abstract concepts. These are real people, real suffering.

And then there’s Cosmas Yiga, a project-affected person from Uganda. His words are haunting: “We have seen the oil curse… Today is a sad day.” Simple. Direct. True.

The Coalition isn’t giving up though. They’re watching another case from DRC groups challenging oil pollution under the banner “Our Land Without Oil.” Maybe this time the court will listen. Maybe.

But Mamdoo’s warning rings true – the court’s legitimacy hangs by a thread now. History will judge whether it stood for justice or provided “cover for corporate plunder.”

The message is clear and its chilling. Regional courts might refuse to hear evidence when powerful interests are at stake. That’s not justice. That’s abandonment.

Still, these communities won’t quit. They’re organizing, confronting financiers, challenging governments. Building their own renewable future. Because if the courts won’t protect them, they’ll protect themselves.

The EACOP pipeline will pump oil. But it’s already spilled something else – the illusion that institutions meant to protect people actually will.