Energy CS Charles Keter has offered an explanation on why the country has been experiencing a surge in power outages.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, March 24, Keter explained that the outages had spiked the Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu 400kV transmission line is yet to be completed.
He further noted that the current transmission line had aged, with the new one facing challenges which saw it fail to met the initial completion date of 2018.
Keter further noted that Western Kenya region was the worst affected with the outages since Kenya Power had to turn off one line in order to fully supply the other.
He also pointed out that the problem will subside in the next three week, and once the government releases Ksh 500 million to finance the completion of the project.
"If we get the financing today, we should finish the line in less than three weeks. After that, we would need another two weeks to improve substations.
"Once we are done, the whole of Western Kenya should not have issues with power…blackouts will come down to minimum levels,” Keter told The Standard.
Keter made the revelations before the Senate Committee on Energy. The politicians, however, poked holes in his explanation noting that he had offered the same promise year after year.
We had this issue over a year ago, and had the commitment from the ministry that the line would be done to enhance power supply in Western Kenya and South Nyanza, but this has not been done,” wondered Nyeri Senator Ephraim Maina.
Kenya Power has been publishing informaion on regions that are likely to suffer power interruptions on a daily basis on its website.
