When Germany shut down its last reactors at Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim, the pound 500 billion Energiewende was applauded as a triumph. Two years on, however, the results read more like a cautionary tale.
With coal smoke drifting again over the Rhine and electricity prices hovering around pound 0.39 per kilowatt-hour, Germany has become a net importer of power from the likes of nuclear-powered France, even as it is dismantling its functional fleet.
Rather than the green utopia promised, the National Bureau of Economic Research says the social cost of Atomausstieg (nuclear phase-out) that had begun in 2000 and that was put on steroids after the tsunami that flooded the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, is nearly $12 billion a year.
A staggering 70 percent of this stems from increased air pollution mortality as coal smoke stacks last seen a century ago are resuscitated and resume belching thousands of tonnes of greenhouse emissions when the wind is not blowing.
For pragmatic leaders everywhere, the spectacular failure of Germany’s energy reversion teaches a lesson that our own, the late Raila Odinga (Baba), advocated for long before it was fashionable.
As both an engineer and statesman, Baba showed through his actions that he understood that energy access is the heartbeat of modern life. When evaluating the case for the now-cancelled coal-powered plant in Lamu, he warned that politics alone cannot keep the lights on.
His conviction that policy must respect science, system integration, and cost reality is writ large in such and other infrastructure projects. I was old enough to examine the intrigues that surrounded the construction of the Thika Super Highway.
Now, in the stillness and silence that follows his sudden death, his final gift to us, his children, is perhaps his greatest — the promise of nuclear power.
According to the Least-Cost Power Development Plan 2024-2043, our growing cities, swelling population, and manufacturing ambitions can no longer rely solely on hydro and fossil-fuel thermal stations that buckle under drought or import costs.
Baba’s actions in the past insisted that ambition without structure is daydreaming. The government has crafted the Nuclear Science and Technology Policy that aims to guarantee not only power generation but also radiation protection, waste management, and adherence to global treaties.
The policy’s objectives stretch well beyond energy. It encourages peaceful nuclear applications across fields that directly affect food security and livelihoods. It promotes research, education, and innovation by seeking cooperation with other nations for safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
The policy even outlines mechanisms for establishing the Kenya Atomic Energy Agency to coordinate all these activities. Each clause echoes Baba’s philosophy of development through knowledge, not slogans.
May Baba rest in eternal peace, and may the energy of his nuclear-powered ideas continue to guide his children towards the future he envisioned for Kenya, Africa and the rest of the world.
The nay sayers who do not share Baba’s visionary judiciousness often point to risks or costs, forgetting that every technology carries both one way or the other.
For nuclear technology what matters is governance. Kenya’s measured approach moving steadily from one IAEA Milestone to the other reflects the prudence Baba championed.
Our path might not mimic the blind exuberance of some nations nor the abrupt withdrawal of others. Ours is deliberate, layered, and inclusive such that if Germany’s phase-out was a sprint fuelled by sentiment, Kenya’s slow but steady build-up is a marathon paced by science and soon to be guided, once adopted by the Nuclear Science and Technology Policy.
For a nuclear engineer with roots in Kibra, the constituency Baba served and as an alumnus of Maseno School, where his father taught, the project is not just about the cheap, clean and safe megawatts that will chase away darkness.
The nuclear plant is the continuation of the realism and courage that has imbued Baba’s life. When future generations switch on their lights, they will be illuminated by the light cast by one of the greatest statemen of our time.
They’ll inherit not just electricity but also proof that foresight eventually beats fashion and that leadership anchored in reason and realism endures long after slogans have faded.