Four tea factories in Nyeri to benefit from their own power generating project

Four tea factories in Nyeri county are set to benefit enormously from their own electricity power generating project dubbed “Gura Hydro Project”

The Gura hydro project is expected to generate 5 Megawatts of electricity to be shared by Iriaini, Gathuthi, Chinga and Gitugi tea factories. Electricity is the single largest expense incurred by tea factories. According to KTDA’s chief Client Engineer Alfred Gogo, energy usage will be reduced by a whooping 60%. Alfred said that the Gura hydro project will be complete by March 2015 and the four factories will start using it by April.

The entire cost of the Gura hydro power project is estimated to be about $ 16 million, which is about Ksh 1.4 Billion. Upon completion, the project will significantly lower the cost of production in the four factories, which will translate to more money in the farmers’ pockets.

Gura hydro project has not been without its challenges though; two kilometers of the proect are inside the Aberdares forest land and seven other kilometers stretch across people’s farms. Getting farmers to agree to compensation in exchange of the said land has not been easy

Even as the power project gets underway, farmers in the region have been challenged to diversify to other brands of tea which are more profitable, such as the orthodox tea and purple tea if they want to fetch bet