The Nairobi Metropolitan Services and Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) have formally entered into a deal to construct a power plant in Ruai, Kiambu County.
The 45 MegaWatts (MW) garbage-powered electricity plant will be constructed by KenGen.
The plant has been relocated to Ruai from a Dandora dumpsite, which was an official site but was halted by the High Court in 2021.
“After due diligence and concerns over aviation safe flight path requirements, a decision was made to change the project site to a more suitable location,” read the Memorandum of Understanding in part, which was signed by the NMS and KenGen.
The project will lead to an opening of a new income stream for City Hall, an opportunity for KenGen to diversify its electricity generation and it will also solve Nairobi’s garbage problem.
NMS and KenGen struck the deal in August 2020 for KenGen to develop and operate the power plant and for the NMS to make land available within or around the Dandora dumpsite.
The High Court had ordered NMS to relocate the Dandora site last year because it was not environmentally friendly to the residents around the area.
The site was officially opened by the World Bank in 1975 and it was filled up by 2001.
Justice Kossy Bor of the High Court had said NMS needed to embark on rehabilitation of the site after its shut down and to work with National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to put in place strategies to cut, separate and recycle waste in order to ensure the environment is friendly.
“In the interviewing period, the NMS will take all practicals steps to ensure that the waste in the Dandora dumpsite is managed in a manner which protects human health and the environment against adverse effects,” she said ruling in the case filed by the residents of Korogocho, who had argued they have a right to a clean environment.
The residents had sought orders to compel authorities to adopt measures to stop the pollution which was affecting rivers like the Athi River and Nairobi River.
