The announcement is in sharp contrast to one made in late 2008 when the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation decided that its best option was not to build conventional power plants. Instead, the electricity provider opted to fulfill its energy needs by building Africa’s largest wind farm. According to a report on Habitat International website the 120 megawatt Ashegoba plant in north Ethiopea will provide for 15 percent of the nation’s present energy capacity.

However, the latest Kenyan project, according to the Guardian newspaper, is one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world. The location for the project was used as a backdrop for the film - The Constant Gardener.

Until now, only north African countries such as Morocco and Egypt have harnessed wind power for commercial purposes on any real scale on the continent, the report added. It said but projects are now beginning to bloom south of the Sahara as governments realize that harnessing the vast wind potential can efficiently meet a surging demand for electricity and ending blackouts.

Tanzania has announced plans to generate at least 100MW of power from two projects in the central Singida region, more than 10% of the country's current supply. In March, South Africa, whose heavy reliance on coal makes its electricity the second most greenhouse-gas intensive in the world, became the first African country to announce a feed-in tariff for wind power, whereby customers generating electricity receive a cash payment for selling that power to the grid.

"Now they are coming to admire the beauty of these machines," he said.