What changed
Kenya and the United Arab Emirates are advancing an agricultural partnership built around the Kenya–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed in January 2025, and a proposed investment at the Galana Kulalu Food Security Project. UAE-based Al Dahra Group has expressed interest in investing more than US$800 million over 10 years in irrigated farming across about 180,000 acres, while Selu Ltd has been allocated another 20,000 acres.
The plan depends heavily on a proposed 306-million-cubic-metre Galana Dam, intended to provide year-round water. The investment and construction remain proposals, not completed projects.
Why it matters
This is bigger than putting crops in the ground. If the project moves ahead, its effects would run through irrigation, machinery, transport, storage, packaging, processing and animal feed. The goal is to make more food in Kenya and keep more value from that production inside the country.
The proposed scale is designed to address a costly pressure: Kenya imports cooking oil, sugar and grains, while large areas of potentially productive land remain idle. Government estimates cited for Galana Kulalu suggest annual import-cost savings of KSh400 billion to KSh500 billion once the project is fully operational.
The UAE’s contribution would not be limited to capital. Al Dahra’s experience operating farmland in arid conditions could shape how water is managed, which crops are selected and how stable yields become. That expertise matters because the dam is not a side project. It is the hinge on which the farming plan turns.
The practical test is therefore straightforward: whether Kenyan farmers and businesses gain dependable access to water, buyers and investment. If the dam, financing and wider infrastructure come together, Galana Kulalu could become an important domestic supply base. If they do not, the partnership will remain a promising agreement attached to an unfinished plan.
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