The government of Botswana will partner with Kenya in exploration and production of more green energy that will help address rising demand for electricity in the two countries.
This comes even as it emerged that 75 percent of the Kenyan population and 62 percent of the Botswana population are connected to power.
Botswana President Eric Masisi who visited Olkaria geothermal fields in Naivasha commended Kenya government for investing more on green energy production.
He said many countries in the region should learn from Kenya and invest more on green energy.
The President said his country was keen to learn and corroborate with Kenya in power production and supply to help meet rising demand of electricity in Botswana.
According to him, the country relied more on solar power as it had more potential for its production, but needed to explore more on green energy in order to upgrade power production and distribution.
Energy CS Charles Keter who accompanied the President said that currently 75 percent of Kenyans were connected to electricity under the ongoing electrification programme.
He said the government has allocated a lot of funds to the programme to help the country achieve 100 percent electricity connectivity by 2020.
He told the head of State that the construction of power lines from Suswa to Tanzania and another line to Ethiopia were on-going as part of the power generation investment.
He added that the government was investing more in the exploration of geothermal energy that will pave way to doing away with thermal power.
Kengen CEO Rebecca Miano said that the power company was ready and keen to offer Botswana expertise in various sectors of electricity production adding that currently geothermal contributed 40 percent of electricity being generated in the country with hydro standing at 35 percent.
She added that Kengen has 310 drilled wells producing 690mw from geothermal with an extra 165mw expected to be added to the national grid from the Olkaria V power plant which was now at its final phase.
By Esther Mwangi and Brian Kamau
