James Gacheru will go it alone in building the electricity plant after the collapse of a joint venture with businessman Martin Kinoti Kinyua.
Mr Gacheru and Mr Kinyua had formed a special purpose vehicle, Chagem Ltd, to build the wind farm at Loodariak in Ngong.
The joint venture was on a 50-50 share structure through their respective firms, Chania Green Generation and Gem-CM.
The two businessmen, however, disagreed over management of Chagem, resulting in a solvency suit by Mr Kinyua last August.
Jamii Bora Bank chairman James Gacheru has opted to go it alone in putting up a 51 megawatt wind power plant in Kajiado after a bitter falling out with a partner last year.
The tycoon, who also sits on the board of National Oil Corporation among other corporates, will build the electricity plant after the collapse of a joint venture with businessman Martin Kinoti Kinyua.
The project is estimated to cost about Sh12 billion. Mr Gacheru and Mr Kinyua had formed a special purpose vehicle, Chagem Ltd, to build the wind farm at Loodariak in Ngong.
The joint venture was on a 50-50 share structure through their respective firms, Chania Green Generation and Gem-CM.
The two businessmen, however, disagreed over management of Chagem, resulting in a solvency suit by Mr Kinyua last August.
Among other claims, he accused his partner of illegally awarding a five per cent shareholding to his son, Christopher, despite his failure to remit Sh44 million as agreed.
Mr Gacheru on Friday invited the public, firms or authorities opposed to the project to file a complaint with Chania Green Generation or the Energy Regulatory Commission in 30 days, signalling his plan to build the plant alone.
If no objection is received in that period, he said, Chania Green Generation will on February 12 apply for an electric power generation licence from ERC under Section 28 of the Energy Act, 2006.
“The grant of the licence/permit will not have adverse effect on any public or local authorities, companies, persons or bodies of persons within the areas of the undertaking,” Mr Gacheru said in the notice published in local media.
“A copy of the application (subject to confidentiality considerations), will be available (once lodged) for inspection by the public at the registered office of the applicant.”
The firm’s offices, he said, are located at Blixen Court in the upmarket Karen estate.
Kenya’s renewable energy policy provides for small and medium-sized wind power projects under the feed-in-tariff system, which fixes electricity prices for wind and solar projects of up to a capacity of 50 megawatts.
The 310 megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power in Marsabit is the only project outside that limited framework.
The Energy ministry rejected a bid by a Swedish firm, VR Holding AB, to put up a larger 600MW offshore wind farm in Malindi due to a lack of a framework for projects of that magnitude, which could expose taxpayers to multibillion-shilling annual bills if generated electricity is not used.
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