PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Lake Turkana Wind Power project (i.e. ‘the Project’) is located in Loiyangalani District, Marsabit County, Kenya. It comprises of 365 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 850kW, and a high voltage substation that will be connected to the Kenyan national grid through an associated Transmission Line, which is being constructed by the Kenyan Government.

Once operational, the wind farm will provide 310MW of reliable, low cost energy to Kenya’s national grid (i.e. approx. 15% of the country’s installed capacity), which will be bought at a fixed price by Kenya Power & Lighting Company Ltd (KPLC) over a 20-year period in accordance with the Power Purchase Agreement.

The project proponent is the LTWP consortium comprising KP&P Africa B.V and Aldwych International as co-developers, Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Vestas Eastern Africa Limited, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd, KLP Norfund Investments AS and Sandpiper.

NEWS OVERVIEW

May 15, 2017

The eagerly awaited race through the wind farm was held on Friday the 5th of May, and kicked off at 6 am with runners speeding off to get to the finish line first! The 10-kilometer track saw the athletes run through the wind turbines on the wind farm. Moses Lekuraa, emerged the winner of the… >

Moses Lekuraa wins the second 10km annual Lake Turkana Wind Power Winds of Change Road Race!

May 3, 2017

On 19 and 20 April 2017 LTWP hosted its latest Open Days on site, which were attended by 129 elders, ladies and youth representatives from the local communities in Laisamis Constituency, Marsabit County. The purpose of these Open Days was to take local community members around site and to inform them about LTWP’s operations, impacts… >

May 3, 2017

Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) officially handed over a dormitory to Nyiro Boys Secondary School, located in South Horr. The school has a total of 400 students. The dormitory has a capacity of 80 double decker beds, and will be instrumental in accommodating students who travel long distances to and from school. The dormitory was built by LTWP’s… >

LTWP hands over Nyiro Boys school dormitory

ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY

This pillar focuses on access to education and development of skills for the labor market. In 2015, WoC provided books and pens to 18 primary schools. WOC also distributed 500 desks to 23 primary in South Horr, Arge, Mercy, Namarei, El Molo bay and other parts of Laisamis constituency.

WoC has identified the extension of Sarima School, the construction of facilities at Nyiro boys and Nyiro Girls School as key focus areas for the education pillar in 2016. WoC will also continue to support the provision of teaching materials to local primary schools.

WoC is in discussions with the Marsabit South Technical Institute to determine the nature and type of investments it can make to support development of vocational skills in Laisamis. This is expected to boost tertiary education as well as enhance future employability in the area. This project will be launched during the operational phase of the wind farm.

WoC is also planning to set up a scholarship fund for secondary and vocational education in the area.

ENHANCING ACCESS TO HEALTH

The expansive but sparsely populated project area, coupled with years of under-investment in the sector has resulted in limited access to health services by the local communities. WoC support to health focusses on enhancing access to health services by upgrading physical infrastructure and during operation of the windfarm, partnering with stakeholders to support targeted outreach programs.

WoC has supported the improvement of health facilities at Burri-Aramia dispensary (solar lighting, vaccine freezer, shelving for medical supplies and furniture including examination ward and delivery beds and patient toilets among other items.)

WoC has also contracted a local organization â€“ Community Empowerment Development Initiative Marsabit (CEDIM) to undertake HIV/AIDS sensitization campaigns. CEDIM has trained 17 Community Health Workers (CHWs) and attached them to existing government run health facilities to sensitize and educate the local population on matters around HIV/AIDS. In2015, WoC carried out a three-month HIV/AIDS awareness and testing campaign in around the wind farm site.

In future, WoC plans to support Marsabit County in the upgrading of facilities at Laisamis health centre and other health centres in the area.

PROVIDING WATER

Due to the arid nature of Marsabit, water is a scarce commodity. LTWP has spearheaded the rehabilitation of several water boreholes and water supply points. The water points that have been rehabilitated include; Arge, Laga el fereji, Namarei, Kutider-Korr, Gatab III and El Molo.

WoC has installed a solar driven reverse osmosis system in Sarima village. In addition, WoC has built watering troughs in different parts of the constituency, to ease provision of water to livestock. There were no reported livestock deaths due to droughts in 2015 following construction of watering troughs in the dry season grazing area around Gatab.

WoC has also installed solar driven pumps to rehabilitated boreholes that had pump problems. On completion of the LTWPâ€™s construction phase, 11 boreholes will be handed over to the community.

In 2016 WoC plans to build a 100,000 litre storage tank at Gatab III to ensure that there is adequate supply of water to the community and their livestock during periods of drought. WoC will also lay a 7-km water pipeline in Arge, to bring potable water to two villages of over 3,000 people in Arge.

OTHER COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

WoC has rolled out a road safety campaign along the recently upgraded C77 public road between Laisamis and Sarima. CEDIM is the local partner implementing this activity, and they have already recruited and trained 12 people from centers and villages along the Laisamis-Sarima road to act as road safety educators.

In support of peaceful and secure communities, WoC has builtÂ accommodation for the Administration Police and extended the existing Police office in Loiyangalani.