Hell’s Gate National Park located along the Great Rift Valley is one of Kenya’s most spectacular national parks. It was gazetted in 1984 to conserve wildlife whilst earning essential tourism revenue for the country and is under the management of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Before the park was gazetted, it was an area inhabited by Kenya’s Olkaria Maasai community. This community currently lives within the park, with the constant threat of being pushed to the fringes, as development increases within the park.

The origin of the name Hell’s Gate is unclear. According to KWS, the park is named for the intense geothermal activity within its boundaries. Other KWS statements are that the name is derived from the most impressive feature in the park, the Njorowa (Ol Jorowa) Gorge which runs through the middle of the park. Some scholarly accounts however suggest that the park was initially named “hell’s ground,” translated from the Maasai language, but soon received the name “hell’s gate” from explorers Fisher and Thompson, after their defeat in a battle with Maasai warriors in 1883.

The park’s beauty though is undisputed. It measures approximately 68.25km2, and as far as the eye can see, towering cliffs, gorges, and rock towers, stand astride the dusty African savanna dotted with themeda grasses, and tarchonanthus and acacia shrubs. Large carnivores are uncommon, and visitors to the park enjoy cycling and walking past numerous baboons, common zebra, Maasai giraffe, Thomsons gazelle, Klipspringer antelope, African buffalo, and common eland. Birdwatchers can enjoy over 100 species of birds. These include vultures such as Ruppell’s vulture and White-backed vulture, Verreaux’s eagle, Augur buzzard, and swifts. In addition to nature trails, visitors to the park can go rock climbing or hiking in the gorge.

Hell’s Gate is a popular tourist attraction, and an unassuming visitor could not easily tell its tumultuous history. This history is well conceptualized by the ongoing conflicting ancestral claims by the Maasai in the area, legal claims by the development actors within the Park, and environmental concerns over geothermal development in the heart of this magnificent work of nature. Exploration began in the 1950s, however it was only in the 1980s that the attempts to produce geothermal energy from this area began to bear success.

Since then, geothermal activity has been developed at the Olkaria area within the park, with production in phases, at steam fields in Olkaria I (commissioned between 1981 and 1985), Olkaria II (commissioned in 2003 and 2010), Olkaria III (commissioned in 2000) and Olkaria IV (commissioned in 2014). By 2016, the country was producing 544MW of geothermal energy. All generated in Olkaria, and resulting in Kenya’s
ranking as the top producer of geothermal in Africa and among the top ten globally.

In addition to this, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for an Olkaria geothermal expansion programme kicked off in January 2014. The programme aims to increase geothermal energy generation by 1,110MW between 2012 and 2020, and some of the proposed projects that form the expansion programme are located within the park. Proponents of geothermal energy have propounded that this long and continued existence of geothermal project development in Olkaria, is evidence of its successful co-existence with park activities and integration of social and economic issues.

The Environmental Concerns
On the ground however, production from Olkaria has been disputed. Located within a fragile ecosystem, the project implementation has raised challenges for conservation within the park and its environs. Through the installation of structures such as elevation steam pipes and power plants, and the use of fences, large sections of wildlife corridors and dispersals areas have been removed to accommodate the change in land use. As a result, the constricted and sometimes segmented corridors have become less effective as travel lanes for wildlife dispersal and other ecological functions.

The excavation for the project structures has resulted in the loss of habitat and interference with bird breeding sites, whilst the use of heavy equipment during geothermal development has contributed to the emission of uncontrolled noise. High vehicular and human traffic within the park has also significantly raised the project footprint, negatively impacting wildlife.

Conservation groups such as Nature Kenya, noting that unsustainable geothermal power generation within the park is a threat to biodiversity, have attempted to raise awareness on this issue and raise the profile of the park in national and international conservation fora. These groups have ensured the listing of the park as an Important Bird Area (IBA), in a bid to stem the decline in bird numbers.

Further, the substantial quantities of brine from production wells have contaminated water and soil, and the increased demand for water used for drilling geothermal wells has led to the use of water abstracted from Lake Naivasha (a Ramsar Site) for domestic and industrial purposes. The effects of geothermal production in the park thus extend beyond the park area, and have an impact on a wider community, as Lake Naivasha is the foremost water source in the area.

The aforementioned environmental concerns are occasioned by actions of project proponents, KenGen and Orpower 4, operating with the knowledge and co-operation of KWS. The KWS Hell’s Gate Management Plan (2010-2015) acknowledges that the construction and operation of geothermal plants constricts wildlife habitat and produces impacts such as gaseous emissions, noise, and potential ground subsidence. However, it points out that given the advantages of geothermal power over conventional power sources, the facilitation of geothermal power production with effective measures put in place to mitigate negative impacts is key. This highlights how KWS conceptualized the realization of wildlife conservation, where development priorities are in conflict.

Balancing Competing Interests
The Olkaria experience is a case study of what happens when environmental interests and development interests collide. On one hand, the state has a stated goal of enhancing conservation to stem the decline in wildlife numbers and loss of biodiversity. On the other hand, the state has in place an ambitious goal of substantially increasing geothermal energy in Kenya’s energy mix, by utilizing a good share of the estimated total geothermal potential of between 7,000 MW to 10,000 MW. An attempt at ensuring these two priorities co-exist has seen KWS lease part of the park to the project proponents, and enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with them to ensure a harmonious co-existence between conservation and geothermal project development. KWS and the project proponents hold joint quarterly meetings on the MoU, which deal with issues of environmental impacts and mitigation measures to be undertaken and highlights areas that require collaboration between the parties to ensure conflict-free progression of the projects. KWS has over time reviewed the MoU document to reflect developments in the field, and the MoU document is always attached to the tender document for geothermal
projects to inform contractors of the environmental obligations within the park. In addition to adhering to terms of the MoU, project proponents are required to implement mitigation measures to deal with the adverse impacts of the projects in park.

However, there have however been concerns that project activities are ongoing with inadequate mitigation measures in place. Further, the Olkari geothermal expansion programme aims to increase geothermal energy production by 1,110MW between the periods 2012-2020. With this new development, the impacts of geothermal production at Hell’s Gate are likely to be felt on a wider scale, as noted by the KWS Management Plan which highlights a concern that the expansion of geothermal activities is not well coordinated between KWS and KenGen, and conflicting land uses foster mistrust with other stakeholders.

Conservation and Community Livelihoods
The presence of the Maasai community further increases the conservation complexity at Hell’s Gate. This community has historically laid claim to the Olkaria area as part of their ancestral land, and has protested interference with their culture, due to the designation of Hells Gate as a National Park in 1984 and the geothermal developments since 1971. This is because the community has been repeatedly forced to move to adjacent lands initially to make way for the park, and each time a new geothermal project phase is initiated, negatively impacting community livelihoods.

Whereas KWS reached a solution with the community to allow them to cross the park along traditionally used routes to and from traditionally used grazing areas, a more recent concern for the community has been their improper resettlement to make way for geothermal production. Whilst KenGen asserts that resettlement has been proper and community livelihood interests are adequately considered in its operations through the implementation of various community projects, the local community is unsatisfied.

In 2014, members and representatives of the community filed a complaint with the World Bank’s Inspection Panel (IPN). Following this, an eligibility assessment and an investigation was carried out on the alleged issues of harm and related non-compliance with Bank Policies on Indigenous Peoples, Physical Cultural Resources, and Involuntary Resettlement. The Bank has now set up a mediation process between KenGen and the community, to agree on actions to address the issues facing the community. In the absence of a resolution for this issue, this clean energy project would stand accused of ‘dirty’ development, by aggrieved community members.

Indeed, large-scale infrastructure projects are complex around the world. However, as has been shown in this case study, the complexity increases in the case of the Olkaria power plants which are operating in an environmentally sensitive and culturally rich ecosystem. While a section of actors may term the success achieved in the development of geothermal energy in the park a perfect demonstration that geothermal development, wildlife conservation, and communities can co-exist, no conclusive evidence exists to support this school of thought. If anything, environmental and social concerns persist. Further, continued acceptance of extractive projects within this conservation area increasingly renders it more of an industrial area than a park.

National parks however remain a cornerstone of global conservation efforts, though oftentimes there exists a tension between conservation and livelihoods. On one hand, the objective of establishing a protected area should ideally be for environmental effectiveness; protecting biodiversity or cultural heritage. On the other hand, conservation measures may instead operate to the detriment of social equity, leaving affected communities contesting conservation and any other attendant developments authorized by those mandated to manage the conservation area. Whereas generation of energy derived from green, cost-friendly and stable sources is vital for driving Kenya’s economic development, the national need for it should not take precedence over the conservation needs of both communities and the environment. KWS, which under Kenyan law is mandated to enhance conservation, must therefore redouble efforts to ensure it actualizes this core mandate within Hell’s Gate National Park.

References:
Elizabeth Mwangi-Gachau, Expansion of Geothermal
Development in Environmentally Significant Areas:
The Case of Olkaria Geothermal Project in Hell’s Gate
National Park, Kenya.
John Schelhas and Max Pfeffers, ‘When Global
Environmentalism Meets Local Livelihoods: Policy and
Management Lessons,’ (2009) Conservation Letters.
Michael Cernea, ‘Population Displacement Inside
Protected Areas: A Redefinition of Concepts in
Conservation Policies’, (2006) Policy Matters.
Philip J. Barasa, Strategic Environmental Assessment
(SEA) for Energy Sector: Case Study of Olkaria Geothermal Expansion Programme in Nakuru County,
Kenya, (2016).
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Hell’s Gate –Mt.Longonot
Ecosystem: Management Plan, 2010-2015.