The ground breaking ceremony for Olkaria V geothermal power station was officiated today on 28th April 2017 by President Uhuru Kenyatta.  The president thanked all the financiers of the project particularly JICA for the power plant which will produce about 158 (2×79) MW of geothermal power. JICA had invested about KES 40 billion in the project. He also thanked China Exim Bank that provided funds for the drilling of the wells that will be connected to supply steam to the power plant.

The president also commissioned 75 MW of wellhead units which have been constructed by KenGen over several years. The Cabinet Secretary of Energy and Petroleum noted that hydro power in the country was performing poorly as a result of prolonged dry weather noting that most of the major dams had very low water levels.

The president requested the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to look into opening the geothermal sector to private developers both local and foreign so that geothermal development can be accelerated.  He also requested KenGen to look into ways of training the local community so that they can be active participants of the resource from their area and therefore take care of it instead of being on-lookers.