Why Kenya should urgently put in place a coal development authority

A worker loads coal onto a truck at Sanyuan Coal Mine in China in January 2010. Coal prospects exist in a number of counties across the country including Kwale, Kilifi, Taita-Taveta, Tharaka-Nithi, Machakos, Makueni, Isiolo, Marsabit, and Baringo. AFP 

By George Wachira

In Summary

• Institution will hasten exploitation of the resource and fuel heavy industries in march to industrialisation era.

Soon after the government created Geothermal Development Company (GDC), the development of geothermal resources took off.

GDC became a well-resourced centre for marshalling resources and investments in the geothermal power segment. And results are already visible.

This institutional model can be replicated through setting up a coal development institution to undertake centralised management of the resource in the entire country. The geological maps that I have seen show coal deposits beyond the already discovered and quantified deposits in Kitui county.

Coal prospects, according to the geological surveys, exist in a number of counties across Kenya including Kwale, Kilifi, Taita-Taveta, Tharaka-Nithi, Machakos, Makueni, Isiolo, Marsabit, and Baringo.

This abundance calls for a coal development master plan and a lead agency to explore and develop the resource across the above counties. This will be the only way the subject of coal can shift from “talk” to implementation.

Economic opportunity

Like GDC, the institution should undertake exploration and test drilling to ascertain and quantify coal deposits after which investors can bid for development. Issuing raw blocks to speculating individuals is mostly inefficient and usually causes delays.

If coal prospects are as widespread as geologists project, then the resource should be viewed and managed as a major economic opportunity whose exploitation should be fast-tracked and prioritised just as the oil and gas sector ha been.

Europe was industrialised through coal until much later when oil was discovered and commercialised. China, India and South Africa continue to rely heavily on coal to support their heavy industries and power generation.

The resource is no longer a major threat to global warming because of new forms of clean coal technologies to manage its emissions.

The recent creation of a specific ministry to deal with mining is proof that the Jubilee government will mainstream mining which includes coal.

A draft Mining Bill is doing its rounds through various offices. It is in this Bill that the institutional framework for coal development should find a home. Coal development policies should reflect the numerous potential and competing uses of the resource.

The policies should also detail investment structures in the sector. Previously, when coal development was under the Energy ministry, the resource was viewed as an avenue for increased power generation.

The new Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in its 5,000 megawatts rapid generation capacity development plan, launched earlier this month, expects the Kitui coal mines to produce up to 960 megawatts of power by 2016. This is possible.

As the government puts emphasis on industrialisation, coal should become a prime energy source to run heavy industries. The above named counties said to have coal deposits also have iron ore and limestone