The government, with support from development partners, has embarked on plans to construct the 700-megawatt High Grand Falls Dam in Eastern Kenya. The project, estimated at Ksh 340 billion, will be Africa’s fourth-largest hydro dam once completed.

Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira said the dam is expected to help meet Kenya’s rising electricity demand. In August, the country recorded its highest-ever peak demand at 2,392MW, up from 2,149MW, as more households gained access to power.

“The dam that will cost Ksh 340B will be the fourth largest in the continent, and that is why we are putting up a high-level team to finalize on how we develop the High Grand Falls Dam,” Wachira said during the ongoing Sustainable Energy Conference (SEC25) in Olkaria, Naivasha.

He explained that the government has already formed a technical committee to oversee the project, with construction expected to take five years. Wachira added that the dam would also reduce reliance on power imports from Ethiopia while complementing Kenya’s solar and wind energy sources.

To support the increased energy load, Wachira revealed that the government is working on upgrading key power lines, especially between Olkaria and Nairobi, to accommodate higher capacity.

“One of the immediate measures we want to do is to use a conductor that can carry slightly more power than the current conductor,” he noted.

Currently, 78 percent of Kenyans have access to electricity, with 1.2 million homes connected in the past two years. The government now targets an additional one million connections by the end of next year.

KenGen Managing Director Peter Njenga announced that the state-owned company plans to inject an extra 1,500MW into the national grid within the next decade.

According to him, most of this new capacity will come from geothermal, wind, and solar energy projects, requiring an investment of Ksh 555 billion ($4.3 billion). Funding will be sourced through public-private partnerships and support from development partners.

“One of my beliefs as one of the leaders in this energy sector is that if we have extra energy, it will attract other investors and our economy will grow,” Njenga said.

German Embassy Deputy Head Alexander Fierley reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to supporting Kenya’s green energy transition.

“The German government has invested over Ksh 75 billion in the energy sector in the country, and this has contributed to the generation of over 450MW,” Fierley said.