Kenya has embarked on study tours ahead of the planned construction of its first nuclear power plant .
Kenya Electricity Generating Company, (KenGen) officials and
other leaders have concluded a study tour of Ontario’s nuclear projects in
Canada as the country moves to develop its own.
The week-long Canada–Kenya Nuclear Engagement Program brought
the team into direct contact with one of the world’s most developed nuclear
users.
The tour aims at giving KenGen and partner institutions exposure to the
operational, regulatory, technical and human-capital foundations required for
Phase 3 readiness under the International Atomic Energy Agency milestones
framework.
KenGen managing director and CEO Peter Njenga said the tour was
"highly successful", describing the move to nuclear as “the next big
step” in Kenya’s push for industrial growth, energy security and
round-the-clock clean power.
“This trip is very strategic to us and it has helped us deepen
our understanding on our role going forward,” said Njenga.
He
said they had a first-hand experience to learn from an established nuclear
market, understand the owner-operator model, and translate that knowledge into
a long-term plan for Kenya’s energy system
KenGen said the mission also provided an end to-end view of what
it takes to build a durable national nuclear program: owner operator
capability, regulatory discipline, workforce development, fuel-cycle
understanding, public accountability, and long-term waste stewardship.
The power generator has been designated to serve as the
owner-operator of Kenya’s first nuclear power plant in partnership with the
Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA).
“This
mission helped sharpen the practical roadmap for turning our national ambition
into institutional readiness,” said Njenga, noting that Kenya’s nuclear vision
is anchored in a broader national growth strategy.
In December 2025, KenGen announced that the country’s first
nuclear development is expected to be approximately 2,000MW, with longer-term
plans to expand to roughly 6,000MW of nuclear capacity.
This is part of the country’s wider push to add 10,000MW of
electricity and strengthen energy security, industrial competitiveness and
long-term economic transformation.
In
Ontario, the Kenyan delegation engaged a nuclear ecosystem built on proven
scale and continuity.
During the tour, the Kenyan delegation was exposed to Canada’s
reactor technology, CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium).
Canada has 16 CANDU reactors in Ontario and one Reactor in New
Brunswick.
The
delegation also learned about Canada's work on next-generation nuclear
technologies and reactor innovation.
“Kenya
is one of Canada’s most important partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and we see
significant opportunity to deepen that partnership across energy, education and
workforce development,” said Sophie Price, head of cooperation at the High
Commission of Canada to Kenya.
“Building a
nuclear program is not only about technology, it is also about people,
institutions and long-term capability. For every engineer in nuclear, for
example, many more diverse professionals are needed across operations, safety,
regulation and community engagement, and that is why partnerships like this
matter to us.”
The Ontario program exposed KenGen to Canada’s full nuclear
value chain, from technology stewardship and operating culture to supply-chain
development, skills formation, research partnerships and long-term waste
management.
For Kenya, this is a powerful
signal, and further boost to KenGen’s new Green Energy Park which seeks to meet
the emerging and future needs of industrialisation, digital infrastructure,
advanced manufacturing and green growth through reliable, scalable baseload
power.
“No nation has achieved industrial transformation without
reliable, affordable, and scalable baseload power,” said Njenga, “Kenya’s
nuclear project must be understood as institution-building before it is
understood as construction.
The delegation observed how Canada's nuclear sector supports a broad
ecosystem of manufacturers, engineering firms, educational institutions,
service providers, and research organizations.
These linkages help maximize domestic economic benefits, create
high-value jobs, and build national expertise that can be sustained over
multiple generations of plant operation.
During an exposure tour of Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management
Organization (NWMO), the mission demonstrated how long-term used-fuel
management can be institutionally protected through dedicated trust funds that
exist for their intended purpose, ensuring safety treatment and disposal of
nuclear wastes.
“For Kenya, this level of safety preparedness offered us a
concrete example of how public confidence in nuclear energy is built not only
through safety and regulation, but through visible, durable commitments to
stewardship over decades,” said NuPEA’s Eng. Eric Ohaga.
