ELECTRICITY IN KENYA

File: KPLC workers connecting electricity. About 68% of Kenyans do not have electricity.

 ELECTRICITY CONNECTION IN KENYA IS TOO LOW

Power, particularly electricity, is a very important factor of production across the world. Electricity is paramount to human life just like water. One can agree with me that almost 90% of the foods we consume pass either directly or indirectly through a source of power. Food can either be cooked using fire (made of wood), gas, electricity, petrol or any other source of energy.

Of late, people prefer electricity to any other source of power because it is considered the cheapest. In Kenya the government has be championing for rural electrification which started about three years ago. Surprisingly, over 68% of Kenyans are not connected

with power. This number is shocking due to the fact that power is the only tool which can be used to alleviate poverty and grow the economy in developing countries like Kenya.

In developed nations like United States and United Kingdom, power is an essential commodity and everyone must have. Power in such developed nations is as mandatory as the clothes we wear in Kenya: mandatory in the fact that one cannot do without. We may be having other source of energy like natural fire in Kenya, but that cannot fully supplement the source of power we can get from electricity. This is because we cannot use natural fire to propel the machines in the manufacturing industries. One cannot use generators or gas power to run an industry.

One other thing to note about the power we produce in Kenya is that, the machines we use are procured. This means that we only own the source of power, but we lack the equipments we can use to produce it and we are suppose to urge developed nations to give us their machines so that we can use to produce.  We are supposed to pay in form of dollars the machines we procure from other nations. In that case, therefore, producing power in Kenya is tantamount to importing it since we pay expensively to produce it.

File: Pipeline. Oil is yet to be drilled in Turkana.

About three years ago the Kenyan government announced that the oil had been discovered in Turkana County, but up to date no one has shown any effort to start drilling it. The poor people of Turkana thought that the discovery of oil in the region would assist them to alleviate the poverty they have been enduring for centuries. The good news in Turkana County lasted for few days and the government forgot about it. The ministry of Energy and Petroleum in Kenya said they are waiting for a pipeline running from Lamu to Uganda in order to start exploiting the oil in Turkana County. The pipeline is expected to be complete in about three years to come: to mean the people in Turkana will still languish in poverty over those years.

There are several regions which have been found to contain a high source of power in Kenya. The discovery of natural gas in Wajir is one of the many places which have been found to contain a huge source of power. Natural gas is one of the powerful sources of energy just like electricity generated in a river (hydro electric power). The report from the ministry confirmed that there are 22 international companies trying to discover the sources of energy in Kenya. These companies are foreign and in an event they discover the source of energy in Kenya they will be the one to benefit most. This is because they will be in charge of production and in that case they will decide which price to charge Kenyans.

File: A steam in Olkaria. 1000MW of electricity can be produced in this region.

The geothermal power in Olkaria hot water steam in the Rift Valley has not been exploited fully. The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has recently managed to produce approximately 200mw in the region. However, the power which can be produced in the region can be as high as 1000mw if the government of Kenya would accept to support the generation. About four years ago I heard the then vice president of Kenya, Kalonzo Musyoka, telling Kenyans that the government had planned to generate about 500mw in Olkaria hot water steam. That was a blue lie which the then vice president wanted to just use to win the votes of the people of Kenya.

 The cost of power has been looming over the last few years with the ministry

of Energy and Petroleum blaming the low rainfall which had been received in the country. This reason is not justifiable; however, the cost of electricity has been high due to the fact that the machines we use to produce electricity are hired from other countries. Since we use dollars to pay the hired machines, the inflation of Kenyan currency has been one other factor which has caused the rise in the price of electricity.

Jubilee Government promised to have over 78% households across the country connected with the power by 2017. This promise may not be realized since there is no effort now to connect the electricity to rural homes in Kenya. Kenyans do fear that the electricity will cost them much and they opt to use the existing natural source of energy (fire made of wood). To connect electricity to one home in Kenya cost the consumer approximately 35000 shillings and this have made many people not to access electricity and yet they have electric wires passing their homes.

I would suggest that the government should pay connection of electricity to every home if it wants to have more than 70% of Kenyans access electricity by 2017. The cost of paying the electricity should be left to common citizen to pay after being connected. That way, everyone will accept to have electricity since the cost of paying consumed electric energy is lower than the cost to be paid when one wants to be connected.