Corporate News
Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo: "Good lighting directly deters
criminal activities by increasing the sense of personal safety as well
as protection of property." PHOTO | FILE
By MUGAMBI MUTEGI
In Summary
- Kenya Power has opened a two-week tender for the delivery of street lights material that once installed is expected to turn the county into a 24-hour economy.
- The electricity distributor plans to install 54,029 street lights in several parts of the city and it has already received the first tranche of Sh381.2 million from Treasury to kick start the plan.
Kenya Power
will Tuesday begin the search for suppliers of street lighting material
in what will take the Sh10 billion project to light up Nairobi closer
to reality.
The electricity distributor has opened a two-week tender for
the delivery of street lights material that once installed is expected
to turn the county into a 24-hour economy.
Kenya Power plans to install 54,029 street lights
in several parts of the city and it has already received the first
tranche of Sh381.2 million from Treasury to kick start the plan.
“Currently, business transactions and productive
activities are restricted mainly to daytime operations owing to
perceptions and experiences of insecurity and limitations of nighttime
visibility,” an advert by Kenya Power appearing in Tuesday’s dailies
states in part.
“The government’s goal is to facilitate provision
of sustainable, efficient and effective public lighting in all the 47
counties beginning with Nairobi County which currently has 30 per cent
of its total area covered.”
The industrial zones that are set to benefit from
this street lighting project include Baba Dogo, Kariobangi Light
Industries and Industrial Area.
Kamukunji and Gikomba as well as the Central
Business District (CBD) and Westlands will also be lit up in the project
as will residents of Eastleigh, Kahawa West, Buruburu and Embakasi
neighbourhoods.
Nairobi, which is home to about 4 million people,
has approximately 24,000 street lights and 7,300 public lighting masts
covering 30 per cent of the city, according to the power firm.
Kenya Power, however, says that 40 cent of these
lights (or 9,600) are currently defunct, revealing that it will cost
approximately Sh953 million to repair them.
An additional Sh9.84 billion has been budgeted to
install 12,959 new public lighting masts and 54,029 street lights –
bringing the cost of the entire project to Sh10 billion.
Many streets in Nairobi are have been plunged into
darkness by unscrupulous vandals who divert power from security masts
and distributing it to houses charging users a monthly fee while.
Others pluck the copper wires at the
control systems for sale, plunging roads like Thika Road, Waiyaki Way
and Kiambu Road into darkness, much to the pleasure of criminals.
“Good lighting directly deters criminal activities
by increasing the sense of personal safety as well as protection of
property,” Ben Chumo, the Kenya Power managing director said a week ago
when the plan was first made public.
Counties like Machakos, Mombasa, Siaya and Embu are also planning similar street lighting projects.
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