en.Wedoany.com Reported - Kenyan President William Ruto has announced the suspension of a data center project originally planned with a $1 billion investment from Microsoft and UAE-based artificial intelligence firm G42. The project was intended to be powered by geothermal energy from the Olkaria geothermal field and was listed as one of the key investment projects in the Kenya Electricity Generating Company's green energy park.

According to Ruto, the data center required approximately 1 gigawatt of power supply, while Kenya's current total installed capacity is only 3 gigawatts, meaning the data center would consume a disproportionate share of the country's energy. The data center was originally scheduled to be operational by May 2026, two years after the Kenyan government signed agreements with the two companies.

According to some government officials, a concept note for the project was denied funding by the National Treasury, leading to a virtual standstill in project progress. By August 2025, government representatives and Microsoft executives had realized that the original May 2026 completion target could not be met.

In the same speech announcing the project's suspension, Ruto reiterated the goal of expanding Kenya's electricity installed capacity to 10,000 megawatts, framing it as a prerequisite for industrialization and sustained economic growth.

Since the agreement was signed, the project has reported no substantial progress and has clearly fallen into severe stagnation or become unviable. The project's suspension serves as a reminder to the outside world to maintain cautious expectations when signing project agreements, especially when such agreements lack support from existing infrastructure, technical capabilities, and a project pipeline.

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