The Ethiopia-Kenya Power Systems Interconnection Project—the first phase of eastern Africa’s $1.3-billion power integration initiative—is set for takeoff after the World Bank approved $684 million in construction funds for the project in June, even as global environmental groups step up pressure to halt the work.

Kenya and landlocked South Sudan have signed a $1.5-billion deal for the construction of a new 1,260-kilometer oil pipeline linking Juba and the Indian Ocean port town of Lamu, where the former country has launched a multibillion port expansion plan that includes an oil refinery with a capacity 120,000 barrels per day, or bpd.

Kenya's largest geothermal power project has broken ground, with Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corp. and South Korea's Hyundai Engineering serving as the prime contractor.