On COP-27 sidelines, Kenya-UK ink green investment program deal

A new multipurpose dam that will be built in Kitui and Tharaka Nithi counties in Kenya will cost about $3,5 billion following a deal signed by the country’s President William Ruto and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday (7 November).
The green investment programs — in energy, agriculture and transport — will become flagship projects of the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership, which is an ambitious five-year deal signed to unlock mutual benefits between the two countries. The building of the dam, which will be Kenya’s second expensive infrastructure project after the standard gauge railway, is part of six projects worth more than $4 billion to be fast-tracked under a new UK pact signed on the sidelines of the climate conference COP27 underway in Egypt. Among the other six flagship projects are a new geothermal power station in Menengai, a solar energy project in Malindi, the Nairobi Railway City regeneration project, a credit guarantee scheme and the multipurpose dam.
The dam is a public-private partnership on the Tana River and is planned to generate 1,000 megawatts of hydroelectric energy and provide irrigation for 400,000 hectares of farmland. The Malindi Solar Expansion — a 40-megawatt solar plant will be built by UK company Globeleq with finance from British International Investment. The deal will also see an investment in Menengai Geothermal, a 35MW geothermal project by Geothermal Development Company (GDC) and UK’s Globeleq which will mark the full development of a field discovered by GDC. The project has already secured a Power Purchase Agreement with Kenya Power. The deal will also fast-track the Nairobi Railway City with an investment which includes the regeneration of central Nairobi, anchored on a new central rail station connected to Bus Rapid Transit. The project has been developed with technical assistance from the UK government.