Electricity connection costs won't go up, says Chirchir

Kenya Power employees replace old poles. The cost of connection to the electricity network will not go up beyond the current price even after the grace period given by the government expires after two months, Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has said.. FILE

 By JOHN NGIRACHU
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Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has said the cost of connection to the electricity network will not go up beyond the current price.

Mr Chirchir told the National Assembly’s Energy Committee there would be no cost increase even after the grace period given by the government expires after two months.

The single and three-phase electricity supply currently cost Sh34,980 and Sh49,080 respectively.

The Cabinet was in August forced to direct Kenya Power to revert to the Sh34,980 charged most domestic customers for connection to the grid. The firm had hiked it to Sh70,000.

“We don’t see the cost going up because the political side of the story is, and we have been asked that before, that if the cost didn’t go up in the last 10 years, why increase it when a new government has just come in?” he said.

Kenya Power has kept the connection rates constant since 2004 and had said Sh70,000 reflects the actual increases in costs and labour needed for new connections over the 10-year period.
At a meeting Tuesday, Mr Chirchir said a study is being done to establish the realistic cost of materials used to make new connections.

He said one of the apparent discrepancies is in the price of electricity poles, which Kenya Power places at between Sh16,000 and Sh19,000 yet fresh untreated poles costs Sh3,000.

“Is it true that when I sell my pole at Sh3,000, by the time I transport and treat it the cost should move to Sh16,000? We’ve Kenya Power to explain these things because (better) procurement processes can bring the cost down,” the CS said.

Mr Chirchir suggested some of the high costs could be because middlemen are involved and could be taking a huge cut of the costs.

“We’re auditing very critically and the causes of concern are the cost of materials. You’ll see people (read suppliers) complaining but if you say you are doing business you must be doing business reasonably,” he added.

Mr Chirchir said the government aims, through the Rural Electrification Authority, to have electricity connections at market centres and schools, which would in turn make it easier for homes to connect.

In his on-going meetings with World Bank officials in the United States, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich is also negotiating for a loan to finance REA’s expansion of the national grid.
MPs however said even the subsidised rate by the government is still beyond the reach of many of their constituents.

“We see the wires in the village during the day and think the connections have been made but there is no light at night. They say the cost is too high,” said Junet Mohammed (Suna East, ODM)
Mr Chirchir told the committee the government aims to have 5,000 MW of electricity in the national grid over the next 40 months (three years).

There would be increases in the budgets for transmission and distribution of power, he said, because the 5,000 MW would be provided by Independent Power Producers.

Of the 5,000 MW, 960 MW will come from coal power plants in Lamu and Kitui.

Mohammed Elmi (Tarbaj, ODM) asked Mr Chirchir to come up with plans on what the Energy Committee and other people would be required to do so all the plans can come through.

He said the committee “wants seriousness” because similar good projects were part of former Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi’s presentations to the same committee in the last Parliament