Kenya needs $5.3 billion (Sh813 million) to overhaul power transmissions lines and forestall frequent blackouts, according to the Energy ministry.
The government however currently only has $250 million (Sh38billion) for grid upgrades, signalling darker times ahead for electricity consumers.
This comes at a time when the country has had repeated blackouts lasting several hours, the latest being on Sunday. The blackouts have left key installations like the Jomo Kenyatta International Airpot in darkness.
Similar scenarios were witnessed on August 25 and November 11, 2023.
Several Kenyans have demanded answers, as anger and frustration mounted over recurring power disruptions.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir on Monday said low investment in maintenance of transmission lines is to blame for the recent outages.
"We have not invested much in the networks. We plan on giving out a number of networks to be built by private firms. This will ease pressure for more funding from the state," said Chirchir.
He said the loss of the Kisumu-Muhoroni link led to sudden increase in power flow on the Juja – Lessos - Muhoroni link, leading to overload at Olkaria 2 transformers and Dandora –Juja transmission link.
This led to the cascade of generation trips resulting in the widespread power outages.
“At 7.33pm the Kisumu-Muhoroni 132kV power line tripped arising from system constraints due to a sudden energy demand increase,” said Chirchir.
Following the latest incident, Chirchir has hinted at power rationing in some areas that have experienced frequent overload of the electricity transmission line as a caution to future national blackouts.
"Rather than the system burning itself down, it’s good that it switches itself off. We will scale monitoring operations and even conduct load shedding (power rationing) to limit overloading the on the lines," said the CS.
This has prompted new investments with state planning to construct Narok – Bomet 132kV and completion of Sondu – Ndhiwa 132kV power lines to deload Kisumu- Muhoroni- Chemosit power line.
"The new line will provide stability in South Nyanza and Central Rift regions and will take 20 months to complete. It will be funded by the African Development Bank and South Korea,” said Energy PS Alex Wachira.
He said the country has not had any major electricity system upgrades for the past six years despite increased supply to consumers under the last mile connectivity.
The last mile project increased consumer number from 2.3 million in 2013 to 9.5 million.
“To complete the entire master plan of the nation, which we plan to do we require $5.3 billion and this year we have $250 million from AFDB which we will implement the Narok-Bomet link, Kabarnet to Rumuruti and Malindi-Kilifi,” said Wachira.
The PS added that they are also fast-racking the completion of the Nairobi north line where the lines are overloaded and cannot be able to carry the load demanded by customers in the extreme end.
