Ethiopia-Kenya power grid link to go live this year despite protests

This, combined with Kenya’s strategic location and relatively developed infrastructure, is increasingly pushing the two nations closer.

Kenya enjoys a historical national security arrangement with Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in Africa — with 1 million regular troops, not to speak of easy-to-conscript reserves.

With a GDP of $20 billion, Kenya’s economy as recently as 2005 easily dominated the region. Not any more.

Riding a combination of high economic growth driven by reforms and a stable political environment that has attracted high foreign investment flows, Ethiopia has not only caught up with the Kenyan economy but overtook it in size in 2008.

The Ethiopian economy is currently going through a rough patch due to the global financial crisis.

This, according to estimates by the Economist Intelligence Unit, will allow Kenya to catch up by 2011.

By this time, the two economies with have an annual output of $36 billion each.

Regional powerhouse

Ethiopia plans to sell 200MW of power to Djibouti and Sudan each when the ongoing hydro dam projects connect to the national grid.

Ethiopia, with a potential of 45,000MW power generation, will have 2,000MW hydropower available in the coming two months.

It plans to sell 30 to 40 per cent surplus hydropower to neighbouring countries.

It commissioned two hydro dams within the past three months — Tekeze (300MW) and Gilgel Gibe II (420MW). Within the next three weeks, the third hydro dam plant, Beles (460MW), will connect to the national power grid.

Fincha (100MW) and Gilgel Gibe III (1870MW) hydro dams are under construction.

Work on Gibe IV and Gibe V dams is expected to start soon.

If all goes to plan, Ethiopia will begin selling power to Kenya beginning 2012.