When she graduated from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 1995 with a degree in mechanical engineering, women in engineering spaces were still rare.

📻 Breaking It Down

By the time the morning sunlight stretches across the grass beneath the wind turbine on the northern edge of the Ngong Hills, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has already been counting hours of generation of clean energy.

“Standing on this point and seeing this wind turbine generating clean energy for the country… I feel that this is an example that all the countries need to emulate,” said Jennifer Gache, an engineer behind the turning blades and the quiet triumph of Kenya’s early wind energy ambitions.

When she graduated from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 1995 with a degree in mechanical engineering, women in engineering spaces were still rare. Entering the profession then felt like lighting a candle against a storm, she explained. Years later, figures from the Engineers Board of Kenya show just how steep that climb was.

📌 What You Need to Know

2024 data from the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) shows that in Kenya’s engineering sector, women remain significantly underrepresented, accounting for only 11 per cent of registered professional engineers, while female enrolment in STEM courses at universities stands at just 22 per cent. This highlights the persistent gender gap within the country’s technical and leadership pipeline.

KenGen’s Ngong Wind Farm began with two wind turbines commissioned in 1993 as a donation from the Belgian government. Before that, KenGen had spent 14 years studying the area’s favourable wind regime through experimental turbines installed on the hills in the early 1990s.  The two original turbines have long since been retired and a row of huge turbines now stands like sentinels along the ridgeline of the Ngong Hills. And Gache has carved a place for herself in an arena where few women stood before her.

“You have to come and start everything from scratch,” Gache recalled of a time early on in Kenya’s wind projects when she would have to visit remote greenfield sites, vast stretches of land with little infrastructure and few signs that such ambitious projects could succeed.

At a time when Kenya was still heavily reliant on conventional energy sources, Gache found herself among a few engineers pushing Kenyan institutions to take wind power seriously.

“I was able to tell my story and indicate that wind power was a feasible energy source,” she said.

Gache later went to Malmö, Sweden, to train in wind power technology and wind modeling, an experience that deepened her belief in renewable energy at a time when the sector was still regarded as experimental in Kenya.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya