Kenya Power has commenced the implementation of Phase V of the Last Mile Connectivity Project for Sh1.85 billion, funded through a grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The utility firm targets to connect up to 9, 121 households to the national grid, under the Phase V project.
The households are located within four counties namely; Nakuru, Kilifi, Kwale and Nyandarua where JICA is financing other key energy projects.
“We expect to connect all the targeted households across the four counties by January 2025. The Company is committed to fast-tracking electricity connection across the country to achieve universal access to electricity," Kenya Power’s general manager for commercial services and sales, Rosemary Oduor, said.
"We thank JICA for the grant which will go a long way to enable these households to access electricity and transform their livelihoods."
The JICA grant comes two months after Kenya Power signed twenty-six contracts for the implementation of Phase IV of the Last Mile Connectivity Project.
The Sh27 billion project is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Union (EU) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
It will connect a total of 280,000 new customers to the grid by November 2025.
Funded to the tune of Sh73.1 billion to date, the Last Mile Connectivity Project is anchored on the Kenya National Electrification Strategy that was developed in 2015, to speed up electricity access for households and businesses in Kenya.
Kenya Power is the project's implementing agency on the government's behalf.
Since its inception in 2015, the Last Mile Connectivity Project has significantly contributed to the growth of the electricity access rate in the county, which currently stands at 76 per cent, with 9.6 million households connected to the grid.
A total of 746,867 households have been connected to the grid under the first three phases of the Last Mile Project for Sh51.1 billion.
According to Kenya Power, this success is primarily hinged on maximising the efficiency of existing distribution transformers by connecting every household within 600 metres of the transformer, and installing new transformers to serve households outside this radius.