Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – In a burning escalation of environmental activism against the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), climate defenders in Tanzania have taken their battle to the doorsteps of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Tanzania calling out what they describe as corporate hypocrisy and complicity in human rights abuses.
At the heart of the storm is a letter delivered on May 14, 2025, by activists from the #StopEACOP coalition to KCB’s Dar es Salaam branch slamming the bank’s continued financial ties to the EACOP project a $5 billion oil pipeline stretching 1,443 kilometers from Uganda’s oil fields in Hoima to Tanzania’s port of Tanga.
The activists’ message was loud and clear, KCB cannot continue preaching sustainability while funding projects that endanger ecosystems, displace communities and fuel state violence against peaceful dissenters.
“Banks like KCB are playing with fire,” warned Zaki Mamdoo, the #StopEACOP Campaign Coordinator.
“More than 40 international banks and 30 insurers have distanced themselves from EACOP over its undeniable risks, yet KCB continues to fund the project.”
This isn’t just another protest. It comes against the backdrop of the violent arrest of 11 Ugandan environmental activists on April 23rd at KCB Uganda’s headquarters in Kampala.
According to the reports, these activists were ambushed, dragged into the basement and arrested while attempting to engage KCB over its role in financing the pipeline.
They remain jailed to date, with their bail hearing set for May 27th.
The cross-border solidarity from Tanzania exposes what activists are calling a dangerous pattern of banks colluding with state machinery to criminalize climate action.
“These arrests are a slap in the face of democracy and freedom of expression. We cannot let KCB use police violence to silence citizens standing up for their land, water and future,” fumed Brian Atuheire from AIFE Uganda.
In an era where greenwashing is common, critics say KCB’s actions reveal the gap between its glossy corporate sustainability promises and its fossil fuel investments on the ground.
Richard Senkondo of Tanzania’s Organization for Community Engagement (OCE) minced no words when he said;
“KCB must decide, be a leader in ethical banking or a poster child for greenwashing.”
EACOP’s route cuts through the Lake Victoria basin, a fragile ecosystem serving over 40 million East Africans. Communities and environmentalists alike fear the pipeline’s potential spills and pollution could devastate lives and livelihoods across Uganda and Tanzania.
However, despite mounting global pressure including from financial giants who have refused to touch EACOP, KCB remains defiant firmly clutching its stake in the pipeline.
This unfolding saga is a snapshot of the global clash between grassroots environmental justice and the old guard of fossil fuel finance.
For now, the pressure is mounting not just on KCB Uganda, but also on KCB Tanzania and the wider financial sector that activists say must choose sides in the defining struggle of our times.
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