Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi on Monday defended the government's move to open its doors to Adani Group to help put the perennial power supply menace in the bud.

During his address at KAWI complex on Monday, Wandayi noted that the nation's only solution to foster development is by onboarding private investors since Kenya's fiscal space for taking new loans has become increasingly limited.

He therefore noted that in the need to instill grid stability and adequacy, Kenya has to work with private partners among them Adani, who have tabled their proposal for taking up the billion shilling project.

Opiyo noted that Adani Energy Solution Limited has a 'stellar portfolio of installing a transmission network of 21,783 circuit kilometres of power transmission lines and 61,686 MVA transformation capacity. '

"They privately own more energy infrastructure than Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania combined. In distribution, Adani serves over 13 million consumer meters in metropolitan Mumbai and the industrial hub of Mundra SEZ," he said.

Adani wants to install additional transmission lines including 222 km 400 kV of the Gilgil-Thika-Malaa-Konza transmission line and associated substations, 400/220/132kV substations at Rongai and approximately 99km 220kV D/C Rongai-Keringet-Chemosit transmission line and associated substations.

Wandayi added that in their proposal, Adani also wants to cover approximately 98km 132kV Menengai-OI Kalou-Rumuruti transmission line and associated substations and about 132/33kV Thurdibuoro substation.

Africa50 and government-owned PowerGrid India are the other interested private partners seeking to win the power connectivity deal.

"The Projects are required to be completed between 2026 and 2027 as per the KETRACO Master Plan and the Least Cost Power Development Plan," said Wandayi.

The CS said that an evaluation committee has been formed to undertake due diligence on the interested parties, as well as evaluate the submitted proposals. 

He asserted that the findings of the committee will be reported to the public when finalized.

"If structured properly, PPPs allow us to achieve value for money—and only those projects that pass rigorous screening and suitability tests will be developed through this model."

According to Wandayi, Kenya is facing a financing gap of about Ksh.645 billion ($5 billion) after securing around 39.3 billion ($305 million) through Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) financing frameworks.