Achieving good results in environmental management of natural resources is the major objective of world governments today. This involves changing attitudes and behaviour of all citizens to mobilise them to address the serious, Complicated and often inter-woven serious threats to the environment. It is in the interest of all to manage all aspects of human development within the context of sustainable development.

Over time, Kenya has devised its own tool-box in the form of sectoral laws, bye-laws, regulations and licensing systems which are often implemented in the form of various policy pronouncements. For example, immediately after the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the Kenya Government formulated the National Policy Paper on Environment in 1996. It states that the overall policy goal on environment and development will be to achieve economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable national development in all spheres. Prior to that, the National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) Report of 1994 had articulated this same stance.
The NEAP Report states that Kenya's strategy to achieve the policy objective is by providing economic incentives and penalties to encourage sustainable use of natural resources and to minimise pollution by enhancing the harmonisation, implementation and enforcement of laws aimed at the protection of the environment. The strategy involves development of enforceable, effective laws, regulations and standards that are based on sound economic, social, and environmental principles. It recognises of appropriate risk assessments of pollutants incorporating sanctions designed
to punish violations, obtain redress, and deter future violations.

It is in this context that the NEAP prioritises the review of all provisions of laws relating to the environment in various statutes with a view to harmonising, updating and strengthening them. One of the major components of these statutes that need policy decision is the establishment and enforcement of environmental standards.

Currently, Kenya's environmental laws are sectoral and address environmental issues such as water pollution, air pollution, and solid waste as such. This division of the environment into separate media, however, fails to recognise that pollutants move from one medium to another. A successful air emissions programme, for example, may only lead to transfer of pollutants to another
medium. Successful measures to treat water discharges could simply result in the creation of land-fills causing air contamination and underground water pollution in addition to health and safety hazards.

Enforcement faces serious difficulties. To enforce single sector laws, authorities normally develop a system of single sector enforcement. This results in a situation where those enforcing air pollution laws are at odds with those enforcing water pollution laws. Compliance with air pollution standards, for example, may lead to reduced air emissions but increased effluent for water authorities to deal with.

The second complication arises from the existing land-use planning practices since development activities are not harmonised to take into consideration multi-media emissions. It is now apparent that environmental pollution
(air, soil and water) has become a serious problem in urban and industrial areas, such as Nairobi and Mombasa, and exacerbated by rapid increase in population without proper pollution control measures.

Environmental pollutants have no boundaries, that is, they cannot be confined to a particular geographical location. There are many national installations and development activities that have cross-border ecological implications.

The principal concept for pollution control is control of the emission sources and effective legislation and enforcement or monitoring systems through the traditional command and control method. Where this fails, it is also necessary to provide appropriate incentives and penalties for widespread adoption of these measures. To this end, the following are necessary actions to be taken with regard to the development of environmental standards:

a) formulate a basic framework law for pollution control;
b) establish pollution control enforcement and monitoring systems which are legally recognised and enforced and,
c) establish single and multi-media emission standards.