Renewable energy and the centralisation of power. The case study of Lake Turkana Wind Power, Kenya

The attempt to mitigate climate change has focused much attention on the technical solutions offered by renewable energies (RE). Investing in such infrastructure can illuminate the concrete development and potential prosperity it may provide to the local and global environment. The wind turbine's remote location challenges centre-periphery relations in specific regions and the ability to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While analysing the Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) establishment in northern Kenya, we focus on the socio-political challenges to local pastoralist populations' relations with the political centre. Encounters between LTWP and the neighbouring local populations occurred at different times and in three different spaces: Sirima village, grazing lands under the turbines, and courthouse corridors. This article demonstrates how the wind farm could have altered the imbalanced relations between the centre and periphery, a change that did not fully materialise. While examining geopolitical centre-periphery relations, we found that land has become a productive resource for the centre, leaving the periphery population socially, economically, and politically neglected. The marginality of the local population may also hinder the inclusive achievement of the SDGs, the very goals which the article aims to achieve.