Unreliable electricity supply hurts Kenya health sector
Repairing power lines: A report released in Nairobi says electricity supply to health facilities is unreliable. FILE
Reliability of electricity in Kenyan health facilities is lower than in Tanzania and Rwanda, despite the region’s largest economy producing more power.
While 75 per cent of the health centres in Kenya were connected to the power supply, it was only in 25 per cent of them that it was reliable.
This is according to a report titled Poor People’s Energy Outlook 2013 that was launched by an international non-governmental organisation, Practical Action, in Nairobi.
In Rwanda, about 65 per cent of health institutions had reliable power against 85 per cent that were connected. This means that even by connections, Kenyan hospitals and dispensaries lag behind Rwanda’s.
In Tanzania, about 30 per cent of the institutions had reliable supply against 49 per cent that were connected. The reliability of power in Kenya was similar to that of Uganda, whose power production is only a third of Kenya’s.
The report seeks ways to use technology to reduce poverty. It used data from the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) Demographic Health Survey’s Provision Assessment 2012.
Grace Mukasa, the regional director of Practical Action, said the absence of electrical power in health institutions was a critical factor in maternal health, child birth, emergency situations and operation of equipment.
“Heath institutions require a lot of energy supply to work properly. In Kenya, only 25 per cent of the facilities have reliable supply. Blackouts happen six times in a month and can last four to five hours at a time,” she said.
Ms Mukasa was addressing participants during the report’s launch at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi.
“Night time services, vaccinations, blood temperatures, cooking and nutritional value of food all require energy supply,” said Ms Mukasa.
The report also noted that education was also being hampered by lack of quantity and quality energy.
Just over 20 per cent of Kenya’s primary schools had access to electricity compared to nearly 40 per cent in Rwanda, 90 per cent in South Africa and about 100 per cent in Mauritius.
However, Kenya was ahead of Malawi where only about 10 per cent of primary schools accessed electrical power and less than three per cent in Burundi.
The Jubilee government promised to introduce solar-powered laptops to Class One pupils from next year in a bid to raise a digital generation and sidestep power provision challenges.
Addressing the meeting, United Nations Development Programme deputy country director Alfredo Teixeira said the global body was involved in several sustainable energy projects such as energy-saving biomass stoves for institutions and small and medium enterprises.
The project has so far installed 1,552 stoves in 725 schools.
“These stoves increased the efficiency of biomass used for cooking by 70 per cent. The project also provided free tree seedling to institutions that purchased the stoves. In two years, the institutions were able to save enough energy consumption to cater for the cost of the cooking stoves purchased,” he said.
