Economic impact

• The LTWP wind farm is the largest wind farm in Africa. At a cost of €625 million, LTWP is Kenya’s largest single private investment in its history.
• The windfarm adds renewable energy equivalent to 17% of Kenya’s installed electricity generating capacity.
• LTWP is the largest private employer in Marsabit County. To date, the Project has employed approximately 3,000 people. Currently, LTWP employs 329 people, of whom 85% come from Marsabit County, 14% from other parts of Kenya and 1% from outside of Kenya.
• LTWP has upgraded more than 208 km of road from Laisamis to the wind farm site. These road infrastructure developments have reduced road travel time from Nairobi to the Windfarm from 3 days to 12 hours, and between Sarima and Laisamis from 7 hours to 3 hours, respectively.
• The project has led to enhanced security in Marsabit County by fostering peaceful co-existence between communities. Inter-ethnic conflicts fueled by cattle rustling and competition for water resources have significantly dropped due to the reduced cases of cattle rustling and venture into alternative livelihoods by community residents. This can be attributed to the establishment of the different LTWP projects and CLO conflict resolution mechanisms since inception.
• The project has deployed additional police officers stationed at the site during the day and night. This has contributed to reduced cases of cattle rustling, community conflicts and conflicts due to water scarcity. This has led to a significant drop in the number of cases reported to as low as 30% from 89% in the recent past.
• Electricity generated by LTWP has reduced the country’s reliance on fuel imports from neighbouring countries. Kenya has saved more than €281 million between 2018 and 2021, due to reduced fuel imports, enabling continued economic growth of the country.
• Through LTWP’s registered NGO, Winds of Change, the community has benefited from approximately €2.5 million since 2015 that has gone towards enhancing employability, improving access to health, access to water and other community activities (e.g. drought and food relief programmes).
• Support provided by LTWP to health facilities have improved access to better healthcare services. For instance, LTWP support to Burri-Aramia dispensary has improved hospital maternity birth rates from an average of two to three hospital births per month to over 40 births per month (thus decreasing home births). The hospital has equally increased vaccination programmes which was a big gap in the healthcare system before LTWP’s support.
• Support provided for schools include solar systems, water tanks, piping systems and construction of laboratories. These have increased retention of students and teachers by creating an environment more conducive to learning. Improved performance of girls in the Girls Secondary Schools in the area can be directly attributed to access to these facilities.