Energy Investment Trends and Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Capital Access in Kenya

In the Global South, capital access for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7- energy access and transition – is challenging, and Kenya is no exception. At the global stage, discussions on sustainable development and climate change often centre on access to capital in a desperate attempt to garner global collective commitment. At the national level, governments align with global agreements through policy formulation and publication of strategy documents outlining climate goals, implementation pathways and sources of finance. In Kenya, the energy sector is foregrounded as an enabler of development, critical in addressing climate change and transitioning the country to a green economy. Hence, this thesis aims to understand this challenge in Kenya’s energy sector.

The theoretical framework of financialisation and the concepts of financial ecologies (actors, practices, relations) are applied to discuss investment outcomes and capital access. A mixed methods approach supported extensive and in-depth analysis of investment, interview and document datasets.

Temporally, the country’s capital access has improved over time for both private and public investments. However, key issues persist: debt overwhelmingly dwarves other sources of capital, especially from international public institutions, and in private investments, it is fast closing the gap; the rarity of catalytic financing and the sharp decline of grants affect small local companies and; in the off-grid sub-sector, capital concentrates on a few large internationally linked companies. Access to capital is complex, influenced and controlled by endogenous factors (at the company level), exogenous factors (global and national), relationships, and connections; it is elusive to many small, struggling local companies.

This thesis recommends sustainable investment practices guided by six principles to address existing capital needs, gaps and outcomes: reach, relevance, frequency, sufficiency, affordability, and adaptability. A Transformative Investment Impact (TII) Index demonstrates its leverage utility to incentivise these practices.