Kenya just demonstrated what serious carbon market regulation looks like — and several big projects didn’t survive the scrutiny.

KOKO Networks: The Headline Collapse

KOKO Networks, a climate-tech company selling carbon credits from clean cookstove distribution, collapsed into administration after the Kenyan government denied it a Letter of Authorization under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The problem? KOKO claimed 93% of woodfuel in their target areas came from deforested sources. The actual figure in cities like Nairobi is closer to 38%. That single metric inflated their credits by over 2.4×, turning roughly $7 million worth of legitimate reductions into $15 million of claimed credits.

When Kenya’s National Climate Change Council capped and regulated tradable credit volumes, KOKO’s business model — built on overestimated baselines — couldn’t survive honest accounting.

It Gets Worse

KOKO isn’t an isolated case. Kenya’s crackdown has exposed systemic problems across multiple projects:

Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT): What was described as the “world’s largest soil carbon removal project” was declared illegal and halted. Courts found conservancies were established without proper community consultation. Allegations include human rights abuses, land grabbing, and failure to obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Verra has suspended the project.

Soils for the Future Africa: Stopped from selling credits from its Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project after communities accused the company of exploitative 40-year lease agreements without proper consent.

What Kenya Is Building Instead

Kenya’s new framework includes the National Carbon Registry — a centralized digital platform to track all carbon credit transactions. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) now approves, monitors, and audits carbon projects. The government determines tradable volumes per NDC cycle to align credits with actual climate goals.

Why This Matters for CDR

This is exactly the kind of regulatory backbone that legitimate carbon removal needs. The CDR market’s biggest risk isn’t technology failure — it’s credibility collapse. When low-quality offsets masquerade as real carbon removal, they poison buyer confidence for everyone.

Kenya is proving that Global South countries can and should set the rules for carbon projects operating on their soil. That’s not anti-market — it’s the foundation markets need to function.

Source: Down To Earth

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