An ICC tribunal sitting in London has dismissed a US$ 311,649,022 million arbitration claim against the Government of Kenya. The Tribunal in its award issued on 2 July 2018 dismissed all the claims by Kinangop Wind Park Limited (KWPL).

As gleaned from a statement released by the office of the Attorney General on 6 July 2018 and shared with Africa Arbitration, the arbitration arose out of a proposed 60.8 Megawatt wind turbine farm to be located in Kinangop at a cost of US$154 million. The project was a vision 2030 initiative, which sought to increase the generation capacity from 1.5GW to 5.6GW by the year 2022. KWPL in its claim sought compensation and damages under a Letter of Support issued by the Government of Kenya for the erection of 38 wind turbines alleging that the government had failed to eliminate a political event emanating from community protests. The Government of Kenya in its defence denied the allegations and contemporaneously filed a counterclaim and order for costs.

The Tribunal in its award declared that political events were not contemplated within the meaning of the Letter of Support and dismissed KWPL’s claims and request for reliefs.

KWPL was represented by King and Spalding, London. The Government on the other hand was represented by the Attorney General and assisted by Mr Michael Sullivan QC of One Essex Court, Ms Njeri Wachira (Deputy Solicitor General), Ms Pauline Mcharo (Deputy Chief State Counsel), and Ms Belinda Kiilu (Principal State Counsel) among other members of the Attorney General’s office.