State-run power utility firm Kenya Power (KP) has sunk a total of Sh1.7 billion in connecting 34,925 households to the national grid under the Last Mile Project since 2015.
A report by the KP County Business Manager Duncan Machuka also shows that 391 public primary schools have benefited from the project that is jointly funded by the Kenya Government, World Bank, International Development Association and the African Development Bank.
Kieni tops the list of households with the highest number of connections at 7,656, closely followed by Mathira at 6,342, Tetu at 5,949 and Mukurwe-ini at 5,873.
Othaya and Nyeri Town bring the rear in the list with 4,778 and 4,327 households respectively.
In the First Phase of the Last Mile Project, the State had targeted 314,200 households translating to 1.5 million additional Kenyans on the national grid.
The project was estimated to cost Sh13.5 billion and was to entail extension of the low voltage network to reach households located within 600 meters from a transformer.
Kenya Power company had identified 5,320 transformers located in all the 47 counties for the implementation of the first phase of the project with actual connectivity beginning in September 2015.
To benefit from this project, potential customers were required to pay Sh15,000.
The second and third phases of the project entailed the installation of new transformers and extension of low voltage network with the aim of reaching an additional 500,000 customers thereby adding 2.5 million Kenyans to the grid.
The aim of the project was to connect 70 per cent of Kenyan households to electricity by 2017 in a bid to attain universal power access by 2020.
Kenya’s power connectivity is estimated at 71 per cent.
Overall, the government has managed to connect 176,363 households to power in Nyeri out of 248,873 households that have so far applied for connection translating to 70 per cent power connectivity.
Meanwhile, Machuka says the firm is working round the clock to ensure more of their clients migrate from the old postpaid meters to the smart metering system.
He said currently 3,000 clients are already enjoying the smart meters and promised to increase this number once they receive fresh consignment of the gadgets.
“There are a total of 2.1 million customers currently on postpaid meters across the country and we want them to migrate to the new smart meters, since we want to phase out the old ones. In Nyeri we have 3,000 customers on smart meters, but we want to scale this figure moving forward although we are still facing challenges in delivery of the new gadgets,” he said.
And to address the problem of frequent blackouts in the county, the official says the firm had budgeted a total of Sh.1.5 billion for network improvement projects, since 2013 that will see installation of additional substations across the eight sub counties.
Two such substations have already been completed at the Ruring’u and Mukurwe-ini at a cost of Sh.823.2 million while the other five are still ongoing.
By Samuel Maina
