Kenya's high court on Friday suspended a $736 million deal between a state utility and India's Adani Energy Solutions to build and operate power infrastructure including transmission lines.
It comes a day after President William Ruto had defended the deal as important in addressing perennial power shortages and reduce the price of electricity.
The public-private partnership agreement between state-owned Kenya Electrical Transmission Company (KETRACO) and Adani Energy Solutions was signed earlier this month.
On October 11 the energy ministry said the deal would help address persistent power blackouts and support economic growth.
The high court said the government could not move ahead with the 30-year agreement with Adani Energy Solutions until the court makes a determination on a case brought by Law Society of Kenya challenging the deal.
'Constitutional sham'
The law society has argued that the power deal is "a constitutional sham" and "tainted with secrecy".
The law society also said KETRACO and Adani Energy Solutions did not carry out meaningful public participation around the project, a requirement under Kenya's Public Private Partnerships Act of 2021 which allows private sector development of public projects.
The energy ministry said previously that it had run a competitive bidding process.
A spokesperson for Adani Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lease airport
The Adani Group, founded by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, sparked anger in Kenya recently for another proposed public-private partnership project to lease the country's main airport for 30 years in exchange for expanding it.
The Law Society of Kenya, along with the Kenya Human Rights Commission, has also challenged the proposed airport deal in court, saying it is unaffordable, threatens job losses and does not offer value for money.
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