The government has turned its focus on 14 counties that are underserved and have not been connected to the national electricity grid.
Speaking in Mombasa, Senate energy committee chair William Kisang on Friday said the Energy and Petroleum ministry, through the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec) and Kenya Power, are doing mini-grids for all the 14 counties.
This will be under the government’s Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project, which is part of the Last Mile Connectivity program.
Kisang said they are now mainly focused on the last mile connectivity for the 14 underserved counties, which are now set to be connected to the national grid.
The 14 counties include Marsabit, Mandera, Isiolo, Turkana, Wajir, Garissa, Samburu, Narok, West Pokot, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, Kwale, and Taita Taveta.
“These are counties that are not connected to the national grid and Rerec and Kenya Power and the ministry are doing mini-grids in these particular counties,” the Elgeyo Marakwet senator said.
He noted that as a country, there is need for equitable distribution of development.
“Usawa ni Sawa. This is what we are pushing so that really, when we say Usawa ni Sawa, it is true,” Kisang said.
Usawa ni Sawa is the broad-based government’s newly acquired slogan that means “Equity is Okay”.
It is President William Ruto’s push for equitable distribution of development across the country as opposed to in the past where development was concentrated in particular areas, leaving others underdeveloped.
Kisang said ironically, some of the 14 counties that have been marginalized have helped produce some of the power that Kenya uses.
“Look at Marsabit. Look at Turkana. They have 200 megawatts in the Lake Turkana Wind Power but they are not connected,” the senator said.
He said by March 31, 2027, all the 14 counties will have been connected to the national grid through the mini-grids.
Energy and Petroleum CS Opiyo Wandayi said when President William Ruto took over the reins of power in August 2022, there were about nine million customers connected to electricity in the country.
Today, that number has risen to 10.5 million, an increase of about 15 per cent in only about four years.
“Remember, this country has been independent for more 60 years now. So, if we were to move at the pace we are moving now, we would have had this this country fully lit by now,” he said.
He noted that if the same pace is maintained, the matter of darkness in the country will be a thing of the past shortly.
He also noted that this would go hand in hand with generation of the power through all the sources of energy available, including nuclear power whose plant is set to be established in Siaya county.
He said the country is currently dealing with other power generation projects like solar power, wind power and hydropower, where a number of companies are currently engaging with Kenya Power to negotiate Power Purchase Agreements.
“KenGen will soon be producing more wind power from Marsabit,” the CS said.
He said the aim is to match connectivity expansion with generation.
“We are also investing heavily in modernization of our transmission and distribution infrastructure,” Wandayi said.
“For the first time we are about to seal a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) in power transmission project with Africa 50 and Power Grid of India,” the Cs said.
He said Kenya is resilient enough to deal with any eventually as Kenya moves towards being the hub of energy in the region.
