Best Practices for Resettlement Management in Kenya: A Case Study of Olkaria IV Geo-Thermal Project

Abstract

The growing demand for electricity in Kenya has prompted the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) to go ahead with plans to increase production of geothermal energy within the Greater Olkaria Geothermal Area (GOGA). The plans call for the establishment of a new power plant, the Olkaria IV Power Station. But these plans come at a cost: the location of the new plant is home to an indigenous Maasai population that will have to be removed and resettled elsewhere. To this end, KenGen undertook and ESIA and developed a Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) to mitigate the anticipated adverse effects arising from the involuntary resettlement of the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) to pave way for the power plant. The RAP aims to ensure that PAPs are not worse off than they were at the commencement of the project. This paper chronicles the ESIA and process through which the RAP was developed, the policy and legal considerations involved, and the institutional framework for RAP implementation. Data collection for ESIA and RAP included site visits, air and noise dispersion modelling, a census, a social survey, land and asset valuations and consultative meetings with PAPs. Overall, the implementation of the RAP was carried out with utmost professional standards and consultations and budgetary resources were allocated for construction of housing and other social amenities for the PAPs. The resettlement programme was therefore a salient example of successful resettlement management practice of PAPs in Kenya.