Infrastructure

Sh21bn Baharini Wind Power Project Hit by Turbulence

Lawmakers now demand that the land be reallocated to locals.

Updated on

August 1, 2020

Kenya wind farm — The wind farm was to generate 90 megawatts of clean energy. PHOTO | FILE

The planned erection of a 90MW wind farm in Lamu suffered a major setback this week after the county assembly voted to nullify the project over alleged failure to meet set conditions.

The MCAs on Wednesday passed a motion to stop the Sh21 billion Baharini Wind Power project over claimed failure to live up to the conditions the lawmakers gave for the project.

The wind farm was to be erected by Baharini Wind Power Company, a partnership between Elicio Company from Belgium and Kenwind Holdings Limited, a Kenyan company.

Some 3,206 acres of land had been set aside for the project at Baharini village in Lamu West, about 40 kilometres from the Lapsset Corridor project in Kililana.

Plans were underway to install 38 turbines generating 90MW of electricity that would be sold to Kenya Power, which had signed a 20-year power-buying deal with Baharini Wind Power.

While moving the motion on Wednesday, Bahari Ward MCA Anthony Njomo said the assembly approved the project on July 22, 2015, on condition that the investors would meet several mandatory conditions.

Among the requirements was that the Baharini Wind Power would not use the land set aside for the project for any other purposes apart from the erection of the wind farm.

Mr Njomo said the investors had failed to comply with some of the conditions, leading to displacement and disorder in the local community.

He said the land on which the investors proposed to resettle those affected by the project had been demarcated, surveyed and titled without setting aside free land for resettlement.

However, CK understands that the Baharini Wind Power investors had already launched a Resettlement Action Plan in December last year.

Their direct involvement in the resettlement plan is apparently what angered the MCAs who would have wanted the investors to hire SGS Kenya to work independently.

The assembly opined that the investors were swaying the outcome of the resettlement plan.

“I, therefore, urge this house to nullify the project … and compel the county government to reallocate to the people affected the land that was meant for the project,” Mr Njomo said.

Bahari Wind Power project becomes the second wind farm to succumb to local politics after the Sh15bn Kinangop Wind Park, which was cancelled in 2016 over hostilities from residents.

The wind farm, whose groundbreaking was held in 2013, failed to take off following fierce opposition from residents who said they were misled into signing oppressive contracts.

Touted as the first major independent power producer wind farm in the country, the 60.8MW facility was to be set up by Iberdrola Engineering, with GE providing 38 turbines.