President William Ruto has
assured that all boarding public learning institutions will be connected with
liquefied petroleum gas in the next year for cooking.
The President said it’s part
of the initiative to reduce environmental destruction and move the country closer
to achieving the ambitious target of planting 15 billion trees by 2030.
"We cannot be looking at
achieving that goal when we are cutting trees for firewood use at our homes and
schools,” he said.
The President said the plan
has already been ratified by the Cabinet and is now in the implementation phase
under the Ministry of Energy.
Ruto said all the 11,000
boarding schools and institutions will incorporated in the ambitious plan, the
bulk of which will be rolled out by the private sector.
"I’m confident that CS Opiyo
Wandayi and his team will implement the plan and ensure every school in the
country is connected with liquefied gas
"I'm inviting the private sector to
work with us on this very important project of delivering clean energy to all
our schools. This is a project that we are not going to spend so much of
government money,” he said.
"This project is going to be
financed by the private sector; as we buy gas from them they will be required
to install all the LPG tanks in our schools and our other facilities,” the
President added.
Ruto directed the Ministry of
Energy to facilitate the seamless rollout of the plan to ensure it’s concluded
within a year.
"Therefore I’m asking the
ministry to facilitate a process where the private sector can play their part
in making sure that we roll out this programme in the shortest time possible,
in any case, not more than the next year.”
“The children of Kenya in our
11,000 boarding schools, TVETs and other institutions now know that in the next year, they will have gas delivered in schools and we will save on the
destruction of our environment, reduce the cutting down of trees and improve
on the health of those who are busy in our kitchens in our schools. They will
not be inhaling carbon dioxide."
Kenya is a global leader in
clean energy use with the country currently Kenya generating about 90 per cent of
its electricity from renewable sources, including geothermal, hydropower, wind and
solar.
During the Africa Climate
Summit, President Ruto emphasised Africa's potential to rely entirely on
renewable energy sources and outlined Kenya’s ambitious goal of generating 100
per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
The elimination of firewood and charcoal use in boarding learning institutions will be a step towards