Plans for power plant at crater creating deep rift

The proposal to establish a geothermal power station in the Menengai Crater in Nakuru is being challenged by environmental conservationists who want the crater to be preserved as a tourist attraction.

Nakuru industrialists, on the other hand, argue that the generation of geothermal power will go a long way in helping meet the country’s power needs.

Business owners say they have lost expensive equipment as a result of power surges while others have had to buy generators to sustain production when power cuts occur.

They say that the diesel power generators have made production more costly and uneconomical.

Textile manufacturers in Nakuru town say they are losing out to competitors in Egypt and South Africa where electricity tariffs are low and they can afford to price their products low.

Mr M.S. Shah of Londra Textiles said that there was no likelihood of the textile industry recovering, despite government efforts to address the industry’s issues, unless electricity tariffs were lowered.

Other manufacturers say they are unable to meet export delivery schedules when power is rationed during the dry season.

Mr J. Bedi of Bedi Investments told the Sunday Nation that the rising cost of electricity and fuel was impacting negatively on production. His firm, which previously paid an electricity bill of Sh2 million per month, now pays Sh3.1 million.

Mr Bedi said the high cost of production was likely to force investors to relocate to other countries where electricity tariffs were low.

Already, many manufacturing industries said they have reduced staff numbers to stay afloat.

Lying idle

“The establishment of another geothermal power station will go a long way in alleviating the electricity shortage this country has been having over the years.

"The Menengai Crater has been lying idle since independence. Let KenGen expedite the power generation,” said a Nakuru industrialist.

He added that since the Ol Karia Power Station and the Hell’s Gate National Park have a symbiotic relationship, there is no reason for conservationists to think a geothermal power generation plant in the Menengai Crater would be harmful.

KenGen runs Africa’s biggest geothermal power station at Ol Karia in Naivasha where it has many geothermal wells.

A former chairperson of the Nakuru Business Association, Mr Peter Kinya, said that several European countries had well-developed geothermal power generation stations that did not compromise the quality of the environment, arguing that the geothermal station would occupy only a small portion of the 90-square kilometre crater.

Hydro-geologist Mwangi Gichuki said he could not dismiss the many benefits that the country stood to gain by establishing a second geothermal station.

“We need cheap power but KenGen must also ensure that the communities living in the neighbourhood of the crater are not exposed to poisonous chemicals such as sulphuric acid which forms when emissions such as hydrogen sulphide mix with water,” he said.