“KenGen's wind power project in Marsabit faces new hurdles”, Jul. 29, 2025

A wind power plant planned by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) in Marsabit County has split the host communities, with different groups now expressing divided opinion on key aspects of the project. The locals appear sharply divided and are now pushing KenGen to consider their views. These include the name of the project, opposing the firm’s proposed name of Marsabit Wind Project. Other issues that are of concern to the communities, but they appear unable to present a united front, include the route that the firm will use in the delivery of the equipment to the site, the location of the site office and how KenGen should go about land acquisition. KenGen is planning to build a wind power plant in Marsabit, with an initial capacity of 200 megawatts that will be ready in 2028. Later phases of the project are expected to see the plant’s power-generating capacity increase to 1,000MW, making it the largest planned wind farm in Africa so far. It will be the second such power plant to be constructed in Marsabit after the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) plant, which has an installed capacity of 310MW. Parts of Marsabit County have among the best wind regimes in the region, and several other companies are planning to build wind farms with a combined installed capacity of 1,000MW.

Apart from KenGen, others include Sosian Energy, Gitson Energy, Kenya Mudhe Wind Power and Ignite Energy. The projects are expected to bring with them benefits including improved transport infrastructure, jobs for the area residents and also social projects including water points, schools and health facilities. This was the case when LTWP was being constructed, but the firm has also tried to be present within the community after project completion. Communities in the locality where KenGen plans to put up its power plant are now jostling for the benefits that they expect will accrue during both the project construction phase and when it becomes operational. Four different professional associations wrote a joint letter to KenGen on June 27, pointing to areas where they think that the company might make changes so as to endear the project to the community. “As professionals of the host community, we recognise the significance of the proposed wind power project and potential benefits it can bring to the region,” said the associations in the letter. These are the Rendille Professionals Association, Turkana Professionals Association, Kulal Professionals Association and the Elmolo Professionals Association. “However, we emphasize the importance of ensuring our voices, as the indigenous host community, are heard and that our concerns are addressed from the very beginning.” The letter identified several concerns that they want KenGen to look into “prior to granting consent for the proposed project or making any financial commitments with potential inventors”…

Nearly a month after the professionals from Marsabit County wrote to KenGen, Member of the County Assembly for North Horr Tura Ruru Elema wrote to the firm on June 23, objecting to the proposals made by the group of professionals from Marsabit. Elema said he was writing as the “recognised spokesperson of the Gabra Community” who live in Gas, which he termed as “the exact location of the Marsabit Wind Power Project”. He said the memorandum by the professionals and the objections they raised “do not represent the legitimate interests of the host community of Gas but rather seek to mislead, delay and derail the project that is of direct benefit to our people”. He gave a different proposal that the project be named the Gas Wind Power Project. He also said the site office should be located at Gas. “If the name of the project must reflect its actual location… then the only correct and appropriate name is Gas Wind Power Project, because the project is 100 per cent located in Gas,” said Elema. On the route that the project should follow, he noted that KenGen and its project partners should not be made to “incur unnecessary expenses or adopt a route that is technically inferior”. “This project will bring development, jobs and lasting socio-economic benefits to our people,” said Elema. Several large-scale energy projects have in the past faced difficulties in implementation due to differences with the community. These include LTWP, which, while largely seen as a success, has grappled with claims that the land on which the project sits was acquired irregularly. In 2021, the High Court in deciding a case filed in 2014 found that the land titles were irregular due to unprocedural acquisition and gave the county government of Marsabit, the Attorney General, Chief Land Register and National Land Commission a year to regularise the process. The investors of the Kinangop Wind Power abandoned the project after sustained opposition from the community members.