Nairobi: Gov’t Mulls Plan To Convert Dandora Dumpsite Into Energy Plant

• The World Bank funded the establishment of the Dandora dumpsite before it was officially opened in 1975 but in 2001, it was declared full
• Enercon Energy Consultants Limited petitioned the Nairobi county Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB)
• The Dandora power plant project's construction is likely to commence in 2025 and is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2025

Nairobi - The Dandora dumpsite may soon be converted into an energy-producing plant to generate power from the city's waste.

This is after a company lost a bid seeking to stop the multibillion project from taking off, over claims that a city hall official had been compromised with a gift of a pen.

Enercon Energy Consultants Limited petitioned the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) where it accused the county government of lack of public participation during the tender award process.

The company in its review, sought to stop the KSh 43 billion project when it claimed that a member of the tendering committee was influenced by the gift of a pen from a Chinese national of the company that was awarded the tender, a claim which the board rubbished.

How Dandora dumpsite was established

The World Bank funded the establishment of the Dandora dumpsite before it was officially opened in 1975 but 26 years later in 2001, it was declared full.

In their application, the company claimed that during the tender opening on June 20, 2023, an officer of the Tender Opening Committee by the name of Kimanzi displayed biases in that he accepted and received a pen as a gift from a representative of the China Electric National and Co ltd engineering's which was awarded the tender.

However, in response, Nairobi County through James Muruthi Kihara and Wanjiku Kariuki stated that Kimanzi was not present at the opening of the subject tender but at the tender evaluation.

The Nairobi City County government further filed a preliminary objection insisting that the Board has no jurisdiction to entertain the review application as it had been filed outside the statutory period allowed by law.

The board agreed with the county government saying that the review was not properly filed.

"In the circumstances, we find and hold that the Request for Review as filed is fatally defective and is for striking out," the board ruled.

The county insisted that the review application should be struck out.

"That the Review Application relates to a mode of procurement that is not covered by the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act and therefore the Review Board is not the appropriate forum to entertain the dispute as there exists another forum to entertain this dispute," the county argued.

How NMS sought to clear waste

The company had also faulted the county government for failing to conduct a feasibility study of the KSh 43 billion energy processing plant at the Dandora dumpsite meant to generate large-scale electricity from the city's waste.

Garbage has been compacted and Nairobi's garbage still ends up at Dandora.

To get rid of the dumpsite, the now-defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and KenGen signed an MoU to set up an energy plant in August 2020.

This will generate a new income stream for City Hall and an opportunity for KenGen to diversify its electricity sources.

Further, the same waste can provide 700kWh of electricity and provide heating power of 200kg of cooking oil.

The Dandora dumpsite is more than three times full.

What's the viability of the Dandora power project

It is holding more than 1.8 million tonnes of solid waste against a capacity of 500,000 tonnes, with more than 2,500 tonnes of waste deposited at the site daily.

The Dandora Waste to Energy Plant is a 40MW biopower project. It is planned in Nairobi, Kenya.

It will be developed in a single phase. The project construction is likely to commence in 2025 and is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2026.

Earlier, TUKO.co.ke reported that Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja donated foodstuff to over 1,000 families living around the Dandora dumpsite in Embakasi North constituency.

The exercise led by the governor’s political advisor William Fazul Nganga on Thursday, July 14, saw each family get a packet of sugar, maize flour, sanitary towels and a basin.