KENYA POWER SECURE Sh6bn TO CONNECT MORE CUSTOMERS

The government has raised the allocation for subsidized connection of homes to the national grid by Sh1.48 billion in the year starting July, raising hope for thousands of households yet to get power supplies.

The latest expenditure plans by the National Treasury show that Sh5.8 billion has been allocated for the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP) — marking a 34.36% jump from the Sh4.31 billion that was approved for the program in the current financial year.

Of the Sh5.8 budget, the government of Kenya will provide Sh 800million while the rest will be funded through foreign sources.

The LMCP is an eight-and-a-half-year project set to cost Sh77.6 billion. The project is part of the State’s efforts to promote a 24-hour economy, boost security and bring more public facilities into the national grid.

Development financiers are committing to Sh50 billion while the remainder is being provided by the government.

Budget cuts and shortage of poles have, however, hampered the program with the country missing its target for the past three years.

The project aims at extending the low voltage system throughout the country so that counties with low electricity penetration rates benefit the most. The latest phase of the project is expected to connect about 300,000 customers, pushing the households with access to electricity to about 1.5 million.

Kenya Power, in its financial report for 2020/21, showed it recorded a five percent growth in electricity from 8,171 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 8,571, which was partly driven by 716,206 new customers connections, including those connected to the grid through the LMCP. All customer segments recorded growth, with commercial and industrial growing by 4.8%, the small commercial by 5.1%, domestic customers by 4.9%, and street-lighting by 10.2 percent.

In his Budget Policy Statement for the 2021/22 financial year, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani indicated that the State plans to connect 2.4 million households to subsidized power in the year starting last July as part of efforts to edge closer to the ambitious goal of universal electricity access.

Apart from the LMCP funding for the new financial year, the State has also doubled its budgetary allocation for connecting homes to subsidized power starting in July. The Treasury has allocated Sh100 million for electricity subsidies, up from Sh50 million that had been approved in the current financial year.

The scheme has seen power consumers get connected at a subsidized rate of Sh15,000, depending on their proximity to power lines and transformers, down from Sh35,000.