The Government of Kenya (GoK) has introduced a series of projects to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. These include the Last Mile Connectivity Program (LMCP), which to ensure everyone has electricity by 2020. The Last Mile project Targeted areas on the outskirts of cities and towns and involved installing new transformers and the extension of the low-voltage network. It also involved connecting households located within 600 metres of an existing transformer, Involved the installation of new transformers and the extension of the low-voltage network, Involved increasing connections and distribution of transformers and the installation of additional transformers. The Last Mile Connectivity Program improves access to electricity in slums and rural areas by Increasing affordability in providing subsidies and loans and lowering the connection fees.
Connecting low-income households to electricity in rural areas has been a challenge for decades. Because of high costs of supplying rural households with electricity, a lack of appropriate incentives, weak implementing capacity, population growth, and the cost of the internal wiring of consumers premises. The Last Mile Connectivity Program addresses some of these challenges.The Last Mile Connectivity Program follows the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) gender and social inclusion strategies for enhancing social benefits and implementing complementary activities.
Recently, Credible sources within Kenya power spoke up, stating that one million meters have disappeared from Kenya power warehouses and can’t be accounted for. This comes as rot at the utility company unravels. For instance Kenya Power spends more than 80 per cent of its revenue on buying power.But it is not just with the purchase of power the country’s power purchase agreements occurred also in question so there has been an inquiry into the mystery surrounding the exorbitant cost of electricity.
The issue of clean, lean power IPPs is causing the country a lot of economic losses. They produce power using local natural resources like geothermal and wind, yet they are paid in foreign currencies. In other words, we are importing wind and geothermal resources located in our own country. Over the years, Kenya power has been at the forefront of providing power in the country and over these years have been marked with challenges that range from overlapping functions and responsibilities to inefficiencies in human and material resources, unhealthy competition, inherent turf wars and poor project implementation.
