Jubilee goes slow on poll pledge to deliver 5,000MW

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration has gone slow on its pledge to generate additional 5,000 megawatts (MW) of power as it falls 99 per cent off the target just 16 months to the next General Elections.

The government has pumped only 675 megawatts since Mr Kenyatta assumed power in April 2013, adding it on top of the 1,765 developed over 50 years by previous administrations.

“The overall vision of taking our generation capacity to 5,000MW remains but it is highly unlikely we will get to 5,000MW by 2017,” said head of Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) Waita Nzioka.

“But we are getting into a situation where we now are producing more than we consume. For the first time in many years, Kenya is in an energy surplus position because we are now at 2,319 MW production. We have a pent up demand of about 200MW less,” he added.

When it assumed power two and half years ago, the Jubilee government set itself an ambitious target of growing the installed power capacity to 6,765MW in its first five-year term.

Out of that generation target up to 1,600MW was to come from geothermal sources, 1,920MW from coal-powered plants, and 420MW from hydro. Others were 650MW from wind and 700MW from the liquefied natural gas plant at Dongo Kundu in Mombasa.

The PDU maintains the 5000MW target remains Kenya’s short term target even as production stretches past initial timeline. The demand for power is expected to increase as a number of Vision 2030 flagship projects come to fruition.

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The PDU projects that about 1,000MW of the excess production will power the high-speed train after the completion of standard gauge railway line. Power demand is also expected to surge the country’s industrial space expand with recent devolution of resources.

According to the PDU, the increased supply is also expected to support the connection of additional four million Kenyans to the national grid under Kenya Power’s Last Mile Connectivity initiative.

“And if you talk to President Kagame today, he will tell you he is waiting for Kenya to supply to him – at the very minimum – 30MW. His real aspiration is to pick up 215 MW from us,” said Mr Nzioka.

Kenya is also seeking market for its excess capacity in Tanzania as its LPG-fired power which was expected to come on stream lags significantly behind schedule.

Last week, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya criticised the State for subjecting county investors to high cost of electricity despite increased geothermal generation that has cut power import by 51 per cent.

“The counties continue to have expensive and unreliable power,” Mr Oparanya who is the Council of Governors’ whip said at an economic outlook forum organised by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Nairobi last week.

“Part of the problem is because national agencies continue to discharge functions such as energy reticulation which are supposed to be devolved.”