The environment question in Kilifi and Kwale is horrendous, in actual fact outright scandalous. Leaders from the region and others alike do not wish to get involved in the struggle for environmental justice sometimes due to the might expressed by the perpetrators of the many heinous acts and sometimes because most have been compromised. There are varied dimensions but mostly the problems emanate from the activities of the industries and established business that are not necessarily factories. The most common of all are the open quarries that are found all over Kilifi and Kwale. The second is the dumping in the rivers, which has caused some rivers like Mbwaka in Kambe to dry; the death of these catchments areas heralds a bleak future for the generations to come. The activities of miners, slaughterhouses, skin tanneries and factories that produce effluents in to rivers and water points are an eye sore in the wider Kilifi. Community members have since revealed that their complaints to the relevant authorities have been met with a lot of hostility.
Ujamaa’s work on this issue reveals startling facts that underscore the need for greater efforts that can expose these injustices to public scrutiny and action. The examples are many:
                       i.      When ballast and stones are being mined the miners mostly use dynamite, which has very devastating effects on the eardrums of people who live around such establishments. The blasting causes cracks in the houses around the establishments and when the communities cannot take it any more they are forced to move away.
                       ii.      The land where most of these activities are carried out is itself as controversial as the mining activity itself in part due to the historical land injustice mentioned earlier, and people are at often forcefully evicted from their natural abode to seek refuge in strange lands and pave way for mining activities across both districts.
                         iii.       Air pollution has continued to cause constant chest pains, breathing complications and serious eye infections
                         iv.      Repugnant stench that spring from the slaughterhouses and skin tanneries has become a byword for most residents
                          v.      The waste from the slaughterhouses and the skin tanneries are directed towards the few natural and man made water pans thus contaminating the content which in some instances has ended up killing animals
                         vi.      The industries which release effluent water in to the streams causes foot sores to people and also kills animals who drink and graze from the same.
                            vii.      The dust that comes from most mines causes the drying of crops and the subsequent health problems associated with breath or chest coagulation
The natural resource project has led to interventions on these issues and the communities have progressively began facing off with the government on these issues for example recently the people of Takaungu met with the Tororo Cement to raise concerns on plans by the company to set up activities in the area. MJUMA in Takaungu and the Mariakani Residents Association are direct offshoots of action aimed at lobbying against some of these ills. The communities and traders have also faced each other in trying to resolve part of these problems and leadership has emerged to spearhead the process in Kambe and Mariakani for example. In some regions memorandums have been contributed to the various stakeholders for further action within their own means and mandates

Ujamaa has established for a fact that the slaughterhouses and the skin tanneries are where they are illegally. Most of these establishments that are causing environmental problems never carried out Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) according to the EMCA Act. It is also a fact that there exists a well-connected machinery of dealing with people who intend/ or lodge complains against these establishments, thus the accusations of frequent bribery. There is a report about Mabati Rolling Mills arising from a study, which was conducted by Kituo Cha Sheria in collaboration with Mwavarata community of Kwale with startling evidence of complicity. One of the outcomes of Ujamaa work is the plan to merge the environmental committees in four locations that is Mariakani, Takaungu, Kasemeni and Kambe so as to create a bigger voice on the matter of environmental pollution.