The chair of Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Kimani Wamatinga, on Wednesday, April 19, revealed Kenyans will not enjoy lower electricity prices for at least two decades without immediate intervention,
Wamatinga was speaking during an interview with Spice FM where he disclosed that the Energy Committee had exposed how Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were fleecing the energy sector.
He added that the committee found out that the IPPs were majorly influenced by politicians who favoured themselves during the signing of the deal with Kenya Power.
“If you look at the ownership of these IPPs, they are owned by the political class.
“The contracts were skewed to favour them for the next two decades,” the Senator explained.
Marsabit Senator Mohamed Chute had earlier explained to the Senate on Thursday, February 23, through Order Paper No 006 how the IPPs were favoured in the contract.
“Private power generating companies only supply 28 per cent of power to Kenya Power but account for 47 per cent of power purchase costs,” the Order Paper stated at the time.
Wamatang, however, noted that this was not the only way the IPPs benefited from the deal.
“They are milking the country dry because even if we do not take power, we still have to pay as mandated by the country,” he revealed.
IPPs on Tuesday, April 18, while appearing before the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, defended themselves against accusations that they were burdening the taxpayer.
"If the state used at least 65 per cent of the power we produce, then the costs would go down," they told the Committee.
On who owns the IPPs, Wamatinga stated, “All these IPPs, some of them as long as 20 years old have the same stakeholders.”
“These are the same cartels who own the coffee industry, milk, tea, bank and insurance sectors,” he added.
On how the government was planning to tackle the situation, the lawmaker explained, “We are looking if there are loopholes in the signed contracts that we can use to terminate the deal.”
Wamatinga further added that the government was going to incur losses either way since they would pay the IPPs damages should they terminate the contract prematurely.
“Despite that, we have to see if it is cheaper to terminate the contracts and pay damages in terms of penalties.
“We will then save our environment and introduce newer, more efficient and environmentally friendly energy,” he indicated the route the energy sector was mulling.
