About Kevin Kariuki

Dr. Kevin Kariuki is the Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth at the African Development Bank and oversees the Bank’s work on energy and climate change. A chartered engineer with over 30 years’ experience, he was formerly Head of Infrastructure Industrial Promotion Services - part of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development where he led the development of over US$2b of privately financed infrastructure projects. Kevin holds a PhD in in Reliability of Power Systems from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Dr. Kevin Kariuki has since April 2020 been the Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth at the African Development Bank and oversees the Bank’s work on the expedited and sustainable alleviation of energy poverty, including pursuit of universal energy access, as well as the advancement of climate-resilient and low-carbon development trajectory, in Africa. Under his watch, the Bank’s public, and private sector energy portfolio, increasingly predominated by renewable energy, is rapidly growing, and is currently valued at about USD 10 billion.  On the policy front, Dr. Kariuki has overseen amendment of the Energy Policy to preclude new investments in coal and the enactment of a new Policy and Strategy for climate change and green growth that underpin an ambitious Plan for the Bank’s Paris Alignment. Dr. Kariuki has led the development of over US$2b of privately financed infrastructure projects, including the USD650m 147MW Ruzizi III Hydropower Project (Burundi, DRC and Rwanda); the US$902m, 250MW Bujagali Hydropower Project in Uganda; and the US$650m, 1,280 Gb/s, 17,000km submarine optic fibre cable linking South and East African countries with other international broadband cables in South Africa, India and France. Dr. Kariuki is a frequent global speaker on private sector participation in infrastructure, including public-private partnership programs and was the 1996 joint-winner of the Institution of Electrical Engineers Premium Award.