Roughly nine out of every ten units of electricity generated in Kenya come from renewable sources. That places the country among a small group worldwide where clean power is the dominant feature of the grid. As the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) convenes its 16th Assembly in Abu Dhabi this week, Kenya’s energy system draws attention not because it is flawless, but because it exists — fully built, operating daily, and exposed to the same political and financial pressures as any other national grid.
Kenya’s electricity mix was shaped by scarcity. The country has no domestic oil or gas production. Hydropower, once its mainstay, proved vulnerable to drought. Importing fuel would have tied electricity prices to foreign exchange volatility and global shocks. That left few viable options.
Geothermal energy, concentrated along the Great Rift Valley, offered reliability but demanded heavy upfront investment and technical risk. Wells could fail. Drilling costs were high. Returns were slow. Kenya proceeded anyway.
Over several decades, successive governments allowed state-owned utilities to absorb the exploration risk. Today, geothermal provides nearly half of Kenya’s electricity, forming the base layer of the grid. Wind, solar and hydropower fill out the rest. The result is a power system that can operate with limited exposure to fuel markets, an increasingly rare position.
Kenya’s progress rests less on policy announcements than on continuity. Power producers, transmission planners and regulators were granted relative institutional stability. Mandates changed slowly. Technical capacity accumulated.
This did not prevent missteps. Transmission delays left the Lake Turkana Wind Power project idle for months. Legal disputes exposed weaknesses in procurement and coordination. Tariff structures remain politically sensitive.
But the system did not collapse. The grid expanded. Lessons were incorporated. That continuity matters. Many countries with similar renewable resources struggle because institutions reset with each election cycle.
At this year’s IRENA Assembly, Kenya’s delegation has avoided grand declarations. Officials are focused on practical concerns: grid management, baseload stability, and integrating variable renewables without destabilising supply.
Isaac Kiva, Secretary for Renewable Energy at Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, described the country’s participation as “strategic,” pointing to interests in manufacturing, skills development and energy-linked industries rather than headline capacity targets.
Kenya’s position is shaped by experience. When renewable penetration reaches high levels, new problems emerge, excess supply at certain hours, stressed utilities, and the need for storage and flexible demand.
Kenya has signed on to major international commitments, including the pledge at COP28 to triple renewable energy capacity and the Belem 4X agreement aimed at scaling sustainable fuels such as hydrogen and biofuels.
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But officials privately acknowledge that pledges do not build power plants. On the sidelines of the Assembly, Nelson Mojarro of the International Chamber of Shipping, which supports the Belem 4X initiative, warned that many countries remain in announcement mode.
“There has to be movement from agreement to execution,” he said, noting that infrastructure and financing timelines are already tight. Kenya’s challenge is different from most. Its renewable share is already high. The next phase requires storage, grid reinforcement, and new industrial demand to absorb clean power efficiently.
Despite its clean profile, Kenya’s electricity sector faces strain. Utility finances have been tested by mismatches between supply and demand. Drought continues to affect hydropower output. Transmission upgrades lag behind generation in some regions.
Electricity remains expensive for many households and businesses, raising political pressure even as the grid grows cleaner. These tensions underscore an uncomfortable reality: clean power alone does not guarantee cheap power or institutional comfort.
Kenya’s energy system matters internationally not because it offers a template that others can copy wholesale, but because it demonstrates what happens when renewable energy moves from pilot phase to system phase.
Most countries are still debating whether renewables can carry a national grid. Kenya is debating how to manage one that already does. That distinction explains the attention Kenya receives in rooms like this one in Abu Dhabi. Not as an example to admire but as a case study others are only now beginning to confront.
By Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor, Africa Digest News. He specializes in conversations around data centers, AI, cloud infrastructure, and energy.
