ABSTRACT
In efforts to achieving universal electricity access, energy security and promoting industrialization, Kenyan ruling elites are eager to add to the country’s power generating capacity exponentially by 2037. Coal has recently emerged as part of Kenya’s energy and economic security. In this chapter, we analyze key drivers of the recent growing interests in coal power generation in Kenya as well as the tensions regarding the role of coal in the energy mix. The Kenyan case illustrates contested visions between ruling elites at the national level and local population at the subnational level. Concerns over environmental impacts, corruption loss of livelihoods, climate change, and future excess power have fueled anti-coal power campaigns and the stalled proposed Lamu coal-fired project represents a promising new frontier in civil-society-led anti-coal activism in East Africa. While the future of coal remains highly contentious, Kenya has rich renewable energy resources and is uniquely positioned in the unfolding transition to a decarbonized global energy system.
