The government of Kenya has moved to revive the High Grand Falls Dam project, which was terminated in July 2025. The dam, along the Tana River, is planned to initially generate 500 MW of electricity and provide over 5,600 million cubic meters of irrigation water.
A new development plan is being prepared by the Ministry of Energy, KenGen, Kenya Power and Lighting Company, and the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira confirmed that meetings with these agencies will establish a framework for implementing the project within the next two weeks.
The National Treasury’s PPP Directorate had cancelled the original construction agreement with GBM Limited due to unmet requirements in the development plan. The National Irrigation Authority, which manages the project, has now been authorised to reopen the bidding process.
President William Ruto, who has pledged to construct 100 dams across Kenya, said the project will help increase food security and double the land under irrigation to 1.4 million acres. The revived High Grand Falls Dam will gradually expand hydropower generation to 1,000 MW, strengthening its contribution to the national grid at a lower cost per kilowatt-hour.
The revival of the High Grand Falls Dam project comes as Kenya continues to complete other key multipurpose dams, such as the Thwake Dam, which has faced repeated delays but is nearing completion.
July 2025: Govt terminates KSh 337 billion high grand falls deal
President William Ruto’s administration terminated a KSh 337 billion agreement with a private company for the construction of the High Grand Falls Dam, located on the border of Kitui and Tharaka Nithi Counties.
The dam was designed to boost Kenya’s electricity generation capacity and expand agricultural irrigation through a large-scale multipurpose facility. The project was to be implemented by a UK-based infrastructure investment firm under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
According to the National Treasury’s Project Progress and Status Report dated 5 July 2025, the PPP Committee reviewed the feasibility study submitted by the UK firm and found it did not meet several key requirements under the PPP Act. Consequently, the committee recommended terminating the contract under Section 43 of the Act.
Despite the termination, the UK firm was allowed to make amendments to its feasibility study for possible resubmission. The committee’s decision came alongside other project cancellations, including the KSh 464 billion Nairobi–Mombasa Expressway, while the Nairobi–Nakuru highway project received approval to proceed.
Ksh425 Billion High Grand Falls Dam Construction Project Development Agreement Signed
September 2023 – High Grand Falls Dam construction project that will cost billions and was initiated a decade ago has foreseen a major milestone as the Government of Kenya just recently signed the very first agreement with a construction firm situated in Britain that has been awarded the contract. The contract was signed between National Irrigation Authority and GBM engineering firm and has thus allowed the project contractor to set up a camp in the counties of Tharaka and Kitui where the construction project is located.
The assigned contractor has been granted a period of six months to finish ground mapping and do the updates on all the technical and social data in order to determine the total number of households that are going to be affected during the execution of the actual scope of the High Grand Falls Dam project work.
Also read: Ksh82 Billion Thwake Dam Completion Date Moved
The contractor GBM, will take full responsibility of the design, funding, construction and the operation of the overall High Grand Falls project for years in order to recover the costs. This simply shows that the Government of Kenya will not provide any sort of funding in the Public Private Partnership.
High Grand Falls Dam Project Cost and Capacity
The High Grand Falls Dam project is expected to cost approximately Ksh425 billion. The dam will be the second largest freshwater dam in Africa after Aswan Dam on the Nile. The dam will be the largest single project of the Kenyan government as it will go at a cost higher than the Standard Gauge Railway construction project.
The dam will have a potential water provision capacity of over 5600 million cubic meters of water that will be utilized in the irrigation development sector of 400,000 hectares of land. Moreover, it will have a potential capacity of generating around 1,000MW of power.
Other functions of the High Grand Falls Dam will include flood control, ecotourism uses, aquaculture and general improvement of the livelihood in the region it is located and the country at large.
