US Senators Oppose Setting Up of Coal Plant in Lamu County

Four United States Senators have protested against plans by Kenyan government to set up a coal plant in Lamu County.

In a protest letter to African Development Bank (AfDB), the four Senators namely; Jeffrey Merkley, Brian Schatz, Bernie Sanders and Edward Markey argued that the establishment of the plant will damage Kenya’s reputation as a leader in clean energy.

The US lawmakers further noted that the plant would emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. In the letter to the Banks’ Executive Director Tarik Al-Tashani dated May 28th, the senators advised the lender against financing the establishment of the Chinese-backed plant, arguing that the project in financially unsound.

“Kenya has emerged as an undisputed leader in clean and renewable energy in Africa, with the overwhelming majority of the country’s electricity currently coming from renewable resources,'” read part of the letter.

“In fact Kenya is home to Africa’s largest geothermal and wind power plants and it will be home to the continents largest solar power plant,” added the letter.

“The development of the Lamu Coal plant would be counterproductive to Kenya’s climate goals and would set back the progress in building a sustainable energy system,” they said.

The four said the 1,050MW plant will release about 8.8 mega tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent per year. This will lead to negative
health impacts caused by high levels of local air, water and soil pollution, they said.

“The plant will increase African indebtedness to China and potentially undermine African partners long-term economic health. Kenyan experts indicate that by the time the project becomes operation operational, the $2billion project will create unnecessary capacity yet the government will be obligated to pay $360million per year in fixed annual capacity payments whether or not the electricity is ever dispatched,” the protest letter said.

“We understand the need for Kenya to increase electricity supply and access for its citizens. However instead of financing projects that would produce profoundly negative environmental impacts, the bank should consider projects that tap into Kenya’s tremendous renewable and low-cost resources,” the letter quoted.

Their protest comes even as locals residents held demonstrations this week, seeking to have the government stop the project. In April, however, the government defended the project, maintaining that its construction would begin this month.

“We are happy to say that groundbreaking of the plant should be expected in the next two months,” said Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia during the launch of the Lamu Port City Investment Framework at the KICC in Nairobi.