Parliament has asked the Treasury and the Ministry of Energy to pay Sh43 billion that power utilities such as Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco), Kenya Power and Geothermal Development Company (GDC) owe various entities.
The National Assembly’s Committee on Energy says the pending payments comprise Sh22.2 billion that Ketraco owes, Kenya Power (Sh19.6 billion) and Sh1.2 billion for GDC arising from works done by contractors, budgetary constraints, litigation and wayleave compensation.
The Nuclear Power and Energy Agency had a pending bill of Sh82.9 million arising from conferences and project funding constraints.
Ketraco's are as a result of wayleave claims and compensation, the team said.
“The Cabinet Secretary of Energy and Petroleum in conjunction with the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury to prioritise the payment of pending bills owed as wayleave compensation to individuals and those that have been pending for more than four years by February 28, 2024,” Vincent Musyoka, who chairs the committee, said in a report to the House.
“The limited funding allocated each year should also be evenly distributed across a number of pending bills instead of settling one pending bill at a time,” he said.
The committee made the recommendations in a report on the scrutiny of budget implementation by the Ministry of Energy for 2022/23.
The committee said as at the end of June 2023, GDC had Sh1.22 billion as a result of budgetary challenges, litigation and cash flow woes.
The committee noted that of the Sh82 billion Kenya Power owes, the independent power producers claim Sh38.9 billion, KenGen (Sh21.7 billion), Rerec (Sh7.8 billion), power imports (Sh4.2 billion), Ketraco (Sh4.2 billion), and other suppliers (Sh6.6 billion).
