President Uhuru Kenyatta's team has announced that a 450-km oil pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi is 97 percent complete and could be commissioned as early as during the Christmas season.
In a press release sent out on Friday, State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu divulged that President Kenyatta had met Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter who briefed him on the project's progress.
“This will have a great impact. It will ease congestion on Mombasa-Nairobi highway and ensure we have very stable petroleum cover,” CS Keter stated.
The project, once complete, will cost taxpayers Sh48 Billion, which is more than double the Sh20 Billion that it was initially budgeted for in 2012.
The new 20-inch wide oil pipeline from the Port of Mombasa is being built to replace the existing 14-inch one which has been operational for the past 38 years.
[caption caption="Energy CS Charles Keter"]
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It is expected to ease the flow of refined oil products to the market.
The new pipeline is also meant to ease traffic along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
Keter also revealed that a plan to roll-out low-cost Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) was close to completion and could also be launched by end of year.
The move is meant to offer alternative energy sources to kerosene and charcoal, which the Government wants to phase out in the long-term.
Also present at the Harambee House meeting were Principal Secretaries Eng Joseph Njoroge (Energy) and Andrew Kamau (Petroleum) and the CEOs of transmission firm Ketraco, geothermal agency GDC, generator Kengen and distributor Kenya Power.
[caption caption="Ongoing construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi Pipeline"]
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