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Paper short abstract:

Using the energy justice lens, we focus on the Lake Turkana Wind power project to show how social and environmental justice concerns have been overlooked in energy expansion in Kenya; and how poor and marginalised communities in whose locality electricity is produced are still living in darkness.

Paper long abstract:

In Kenya, although the current movement towards energy transition in the forms of renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, solar and geothermal) may meet SDGs on sustainability and climate actions, other SDGs, in particular those focusing on social inequality, peace, justice and good governance structures are threatened. This study focuses on Marsabit, a County in Northern Kenya serving as home to the Lake Turkana Wind Power – the largest wind farm in the continent that supplies power to a plant near the capital city, Nairobi. Land-related contestations and conflicts linked to the wind farm have been well documented. However, a focus on community justice in terms of fairness in process as well as the distribution of costs and benefits across the host communities is yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention. It is against this backdrop that the study draws from the energy justice lens - distributive, procedural and recognition (in)justices - to explore societal concerns linked to the wind farm. We find that first, social and environmental justice concerns are often overlooked in this drive for energy expansion. Second, the costs and benefits of hosting the wind project are unevenly distributed between communities, particularly as the key promise to provide grid-connected electricity to the host communities remain unfulfilled. The study submits by asking how just is the ‘just transition’ when poor and marginalised communities in whose locality electricity is produced are still living in darkness?