Nakuru County's data center story is Olkaria, the geothermal field near Lake Naivasha run by the state generator KenGen. In May 2024, during President William Ruto's state visit to Washington, Microsoft and the UAE AI firm G42 signed a letter of intent with Kenya for a $1 billion package. At its centre was a geothermal-powered data center campus at Olkaria of 100 megawatts at first, rising to as much as 1 gigawatt, meant to host Microsoft's first East African Azure cloud region within two years. "This represents the single largest and broadest digital investment in Kenya's history," said Microsoft president Brad Smith. A smaller local project was already under way: EcoCloud broke ground in 2023 on its 'Project Eagle' data center at KenGen's Green Energy Park in Olkaria.
The big campus stalled over power. "To switch on that one data center, we would need to shut off power for half the country. That's when I knew there was a problem," Ruto said in Nairobi, Data Center Dynamics reported on 7 May 2026, citing Business Insider Africa. DCD put Kenya's total supply at about 3 gigawatts. The Citizen reported he had made the same point to Kenyans in Doha in November 2025. Officials said a concept note to the National Treasury never won clearance, and by August 2025 the May 2026 launch date was already lost. Bloomberg, as cited by DCD, reported a different account: Microsoft and G42 had asked the government to commit to leasing a set amount of capacity every year, and talks broke down when it could not. The government's technology envoy, Philip Thigo, disputed that it had stalled: "His point has not been that the project was suspended, but Kenya must confront the scale of energy required to support next-generation digital infrastructure."
Around the lake, residents are asking about water. The companies promised "state-of-the-art water conservation technology" but published no water figure. KenGen told Al Jazeera the project remains at the design stage. "Currently, we are relying on water vendors to get water, our animals are walking for kilometres, and we fear things could get worse as demand for water rises," said Musa Olorkedienye, who lives near Olkaria. Silas Wanjala of the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association recalled that "This lake in 2010 nearly dried up due to over-abstraction, and this could be repeated due to high demand for water by these investors in Olkaria." Absolom Mukhuusi of the Naivasha Professional Association welcomed the investment but said: "our biggest fear is what happens to our water bodies and communities as water is diverted to Olkaria for the heavy users."
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
Nakuru County2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft-G42 OlkariaNaivasha | G42/Microsoft | Suspended | 100 MW | |
| Khazna Kenya (EcoCloud)Naivasha | Khazna Data Centers (G42) | Under construction | 60 MW |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.