Nairobi County seeks new investor for Sh28 billion power plant

NAIROBI, KENYA: Nairobi governor Dr Evans Kidero has announced that the county is looking for another investor to set up the Sh30 billion power plant.

This is after the German firm that had been awarded the tender by the county failed to raise the required €270 million to set up the plant in 2013.

The firm, Sustainable Environment Management UG (SEM) was supposed to eliminate the need to relocate the Dandora dumpsite by investing in renewable energy using the waste as raw materials to produce up 160 megawatts of power in a day.

The waste is used to generate methane gas that is later used as a raw material to produce the renewable power.

"At the moment we are looking for another investor to hand over the project to. The earlier firm could not raise the required amount so the project never took off," explained Kidero.

Kidero pledged that once a suitable firm is found, the project will kick off almost immediately.

Though the initial plan of the project was to eliminate the expense of relocating the Dandora dumpsite, Kidero noted that the site is still viable for the next ten years before it is full.

"It is the common tradition of people dumping garbage outside the site...but when if compacted Dandora can still hold for the next ten years," said Kidero.

Kidero was speaking on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) that came to an end on Sunday.

The governor had met Japan International Corporation Agency (Jica) officials with whom the county currently has a partnership in managing solid waste that is to see prolonged life of dumpsites especially Dandora.