A cabinet meeting chaired by President William Ruto on Wednesday has directed the Ministry of Energy to take immediate action to end frequent power outages that have resulted in huge losses.
The cabinet noted that the frequent national power blackouts are affecting Kenya's investment climate and inconveniencing the public in the process eroding investor confidence
Ruto called for decisive action by the ministry headed by Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir with the Cabinet setting in motion an elaborate effort to unbundle the clogged transmission line system.
The cabinet approved the strategic separation of power generation, transmission and distribution to prevent the entire country being plunged into darkness for hours whenever a transmission line fails.
The Ruto cabinet also gave a nod for the construction of the Bomet-Narok power transmission line in a bid to tackle the specific challenge of overloading that has been blamed for the recurrent outages.
Read More
It was revealed that the government has allocated Sh66 billion from the African Development Bank (ADB) to jumpstart the project that was initially funded in 2016 but was delayed due to legal hitches.
The government also plans to initiate a Sh200 billion KenGen solar power project at the Seven Forks Dam as it makes steps to embrace sustainable energy solutions to mitigate effects of climate change.
The 42MW solar initiative backed by advanced battery storage will acts as a fail-safe during power failures and preserve hydro-power at the Seven Forks Dam to enhance Kenya’s energy resilience.