Kenya has turned to a Turkish firm to help plug a growing electricity gap that has left millions of households and businesses reeling from frequent blackouts nationwide.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The government, according to reports, is in early talks with Istanbul-based  Karpowership , a company that operates floating power plants mounted on ships, to boost electricity supply along Kenya's coastline.

According to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) Managing Director, Joseph Siror, the discussions, which began in 2024, are already underway, with the plan at an advanced stage.

Further reports indicate that the project was initially expected to be operational by December this year, as referenced in a report timeframe.

📌 What You Need to Know

Karpowership, for its part, boasts a fleet of 45 vessels capable of generating more than 8,000 megawatts of power across 20 countries in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, and Oceania.

The company offers a plug-and-play solution and can deploy and commission an offshore floating power plant in under 30 days, making it an attractive option for countries in urgent need.

The urgency is significant, since peak power demand has surged by a third to a record 2.4 gigawatts in 2025, up from 1.8 gigawatts when the government froze new power agreements in 2018.

That freeze, a moratorium on new power-purchase agreements introduced seven years ago, effectively locked out fresh generation capacity even as demand kept climbing year after year.

Kenya only lifted the moratorium in November last year, but the damage was already visible. Electricity imports hit a record 11 per cent of overall national consumption in 2025, a sign the grid was struggling to keep up.

Meanwhile, Kenya Power’s contracted supply has only grown by 13 per cent to 2.9 gigawatts over the same period, a figure that has not kept pace with soaring demand.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke