Short Course IX on-going in Kenya
Short Course IX on Exploration for Geothermal Resources is currently ongoing at Lake Bogoria and Lake Naivasha, Kenya. It opened on November 2nd and the closing ceremony is scheduled on November 23rd. The Short Courses targets young geoscientists and engineers that are working in geothermal or being groomed for that. The course is hosted by the UNU-GTP in Iceland and the Kenya Electricity and Generating Company, Ltd. (KenGen) and Geothermal Development Company (GDC) in Kenya. The course is a part of a Short Course Series on geothermal exploration that falls within the framework of UNU-GTP Millennium Short Courses, which have been conducted annually, in Kenya since 2005, and in El Salvador since 2006.
In all 58 individuals from 18 countries are participating in the Short Course. They come from Burundi (1), Cameroon (1), the Comoros (2), Djibouti (2), D.R. Congo (2), Eritrea (1), Ethiopia (3), Malawi (1), Mozambique (1), Nigeria (1), Rwanda (2), Sudan (2), Tanzania (3), Uganda (3), Zambia (1), Yemen (1), Zimbabwe/S-Africa (1) and the host country Kenya which has 30 participants.
The formal opening ceremony in Naivasha was attended a.o. by Mr. David Chirchir, Cabinett Secretary of Kenya‘s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Dr. Silas Simiyu, CEO of GDC, and Mr. Geoffrey Muchemi, Geothermal Development Manager of KenGen. In the opening speeches they emphasized the importance of these Short Course Series for the region, playing a major role in the capacity building for the ongoing fast-tracking of geothermal development in E-Africa and Kenya specially, and thus contributing significantly to putting geothermal on the map all over E-Africa, and even in other parts of Africa.