Steaming ahead while also losing pressure? Examining the roles of the state in Kenya’s geothermal energy transition

• Relational state theory reveals the complex, often contradictory roles of states in sustainability transitions. • Utility of relational state theory demonstrated using case of Kenya’s geothermal energy transition. • Relational approach uncovers a more significant role for state actors in Kenya’s geothermal transition. • Approach also yields a more complex account where state actors have both supported and hindered progress. This paper aligns with, and seeks to build on, literature which has called for more sophisticated, dynamic conceptions of ‘the state’ in sustainability transitions research. Specifically, the paper echoes scholars who have argued that relational state theory can offer a useful approach for understanding the complex, often contradictory roles that states play in shaping sustainability transitions. The paper demonstrates its utility through the case of Kenya’s geothermal energy transition. Since the early-2000s, geothermal has displaced hydro and thermal power as Kenya’s biggest source of electricity and, today, Kenya ranks seventh amongst geothermal power producers worldwide. Mainstream accounts often appear to locate Kenya’s geothermal ‘success’ in the adoption of institutional arrangements that have promoted private investment and restricted the state’s presence. Where the state is recognised, it is often seemingly for dutifully performing the functions of a ‘de-risking state’. Critical academic literature identifies a more expansive role for the state. However, it, too, underplays various ways in which the Kenyan state – and balance of social forces underpinning it – has shaped geothermal developments. A relational approach, by contrast, uncovers a fuller, more extensive role for state actors in Kenya’s geothermal transition. It also yields a more complicated, nuanced account in which state actors have not always supported geothermal expansion and, in some respects, have actively forestalled it, through combinations of intra-state turf wars, flawed planning processes and personalistic rent-seeking.