City lawyer Apollo Mboya has filed a suit in the High Court
seeking to stop the Treasury and power producers from passing on to
consumers any costs associated with 20 power projects he claims are
unwarranted.
Mr Mboya claims that the estimated charge
of about Sh100 billion annual payments, to be passed on to the
consumers, are in disregard to the rights of electricity consumers and
taxpayers and should be stopped.
The lawyer, who has
been championing electricity consumers’ rights, argues that the Treasury
secretary has prepared a Budget Policy Statement on Creating Jobs,
Transforming Lives as part of “The Big Four” plan, with the intention of
using taxpayer funds to pay approximately Sh100 billion annually for
power projects over a period of 25 years.
The payments include ‘deemed Generated Energy Payments to 20 private power projects contrary to the law.’
“The said amounts of approximately Sh100 billion annually
(cumulatively Sh2.14 trillion) shall burden electricity consumers and
taxpayers with inflated electricity bills and levies to the benefit of
private entities and individuals,” Mr Mboya says in the documents filed
in court.
Treasury secretary, Ministry of Energy,
Central Bank of Kenya, Energy Regulatory Commission and the Kenya
Electricity Transmission Company are listed in the suit papers as
respondents.
Mr
Mboya accuses Ketraco of being negligent in connecting the Lake Turkana
Wind Power to the National Power Grid and exposing taxpayers and
electricity consumers to paying billions of shillings for stranded
electricity.
The lawyer further accuses the Ministry of
Energy of signing skewed contracts with power producers, arguing that
when the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project failed to meet the 2014
deadline of completion, it did not pay any fine but taxpayers and
electricity consumers are now forced to pay for Ketraco’s failure to
complete the transmission line within schedule.
Mr
Mboya notes in his petition that the World Bank had cautioned Kenyan
authorities against signing an onerous power purchase agreement with
Lake Turkana Wind Power, forcing the World Bank to withdraw its backing
for the project.
The World Bank, he says, had raised
concerned on the power purchase agreement that commits consumers to
paying billions of shillings for electricity not used — effectively
beating the project’s primary purpose of reducing the cost of power in
Kenya.
No comments :
Post a Comment