09:00 - 10:30
Oral session
Room: Aston Webb – WG12
Stream: Precarious Prospects: Corridors, Grabs and Extractions at the Pastoral Margins
Chair/s:
Jeremy Lind
Taking off Against the Wind: the impact of the Wind Mega-Project on Inclusive Development in Kenya
Agnieszka Kazimierczuk
African Studies Centre Leiden University, Leiden

Energy is critical in the country’s move towards industrialisation and an essential enabler of economic development. This is because it has direct impact on the cost of manufacturing and value addition, and ultimately the cost of living, but the type of the energy produced matters as well. Following the agreement reached during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris many countries, including Kenya, committed to do more to achieve clean energy transition, meaning that they pledged to increase the share of renewable energy in the national power mix (Isoaho, Goritz, & Schulz, 2017). As much as such transition is necessary and positive from the global environmental perspective, its social aspects have been less assured.

Some scholars argue that the process has been unequally captured by the global players and national elites serving mostly the interest of the private capital instead of the directly affected local communities (Newell & Mulvaney, 2013; Newell & Phillips, 2016; Scoones, Leach, & Newell, 2015). Furthermore, the private ventures contributing to (clean) energy transition in Africa are increasingly taking place at the pastoral margins: remote, so far neglected thus underdeveloped and poor regions of the continent inhabited by people whose livelihood depends predominantly on livestock and strategic mobility to access water and grazing resources (African Union, 2010). Such regions, often marginalised for decades, are complex and dynamic places with contested historical relations of power and struggle: between citizens and the state, rich and poor, majorities and minorities, and since recently, between the local (pastoralist) population and (increasingly engaging) private sector (Hodgson, 2017; Morton, 2013).

In Kenya, one of the most prominent examples of a private renewable energy investment at the pastoral margins is Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP). This high-profile 310MW wind energy project was initiated by the Dutch company KP&P in 2006. LTWP is located on the south-east side of the Lake Turkana in Marsabit County. Inhabited by the semi-nomadic pastoralists, it is one of the most remote, underdeveloped and poor regions of Kenya – so far seriously neglected by the government and investors. With a budget of €620 million it is the largest private investment in the country and once in operation, it will be Africa’s biggest wind farm, delivering ±15% of steady and clean energy to the national grid of Kenya. Its construction involved over 1,000 people (local, national and international) from more than twenty companies. It has created a substantial impact on the local economy and brought in new ways of collaborating and competing between international and national investors, as well as international, national and local stakeholders.

Private sector initiatives, and particularly large-scale infrastructure investments on global peripheries such as LTWP, are increasingly expected to contribute to the ‘inclusive development’ in developing countries (e.g. Boyle & Boguslaw, 2007; Oetzel & Doh, 2009; Osuji & Obibuaku, 2016; UN, 2015). Their major contribution boils down to providing jobs to the members of the local community, paying taxes, their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, and spill overs of skills and/or technology transfers that would empower the marginalized people (Andriof & McIntosh, 2001; Boyle & Boguslaw, 2007; Meyer, 2004; Oetzel & Doh, 2009; Osuji & Obibuaku, 2016; Pouw & Gupta, 2017; Sullivan, 2003). It was, however, noted that despite increased transparency of the companies about their corporate engagement in developing countries (Dawkins & Ngunjiri, 2008; Fortanier & Kolk, 2007; Hamann & Kapelus, 2004; Kolk & Lenfant, 2010; Visser, 2002), the information about their local impact is largely missing. Consequently, the research investigating the specific contribution of the private sector to the local (inclusive) development has been scarce and practically lacking in the context of private investments at the pastoral margins (Kolk & Lenfant, 2018; Morton, 2013).

Therefore, this article will aspire to fill in this gap by examining the nature of LTWP’s contributions in relation to inclusive development in the context of pastoral margins, as perceived through the eyes of the company and the local community. It also wants to address potential trade-offs on the community level between inclusive development and the priority to promote renewable energy investments in the frame of the clean energy transition. It is based on extensive literature review, as well as on a number of interviews with LTWP management, employees, community members and CSO representatives, as well as some government officials involved in the project development. Information used is also drawn from the review of government and LTWP documents as well as media and Internet sources when necessary.


Reference:
Th-A37 Precarious Prospects 2-P-001
Presenter/s:
Agnieszka Kazimierczuk
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Aston Webb – WG12
Chair/s:
Jeremy Lind
Date:
Thursday, 13 September
Time:
09:00 - 09:15
Session times:
09:00 - 10:30