Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Actually Develop Mining Communities? An Examination of CSR Programmes in Kenya’s Mining Sector

This chapter analyses the place of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Kenya’s mining sector. The extractive industry engages in corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only to obtain the social license needed to mine but, ostensibly, also to develop the communities within which they carry out their operations. The Kenyan Mining Policy 2016, new Kenyan Mining Act 2016 and Petroleum Act 2019 suggest various ways through which players in the mining industry (especially mining corporations) can develop local communities. The Local Content Bill 2018 also spells out how communities can benefit from mining projects through arrangements bearing on the promotion of value addition through local expertise. The Petroleum Act 2019 itself already provides a comprehensive framework that guides the development of regulations to implement local content and has a suggestion on how mining communities can be assisted. These legal instruments thus focus on how communities can be assisted through CSR activities. While this may be the aim of these regulations, others have argued that these legal instruments only suggest how CSR may be carried out without offering specifics. This thus will only create regulatory confusion to the detriment of communities (as major multinational mining companies tend to overwhelm weak governments in developing nations by ignoring these regulations).