President William Ruto has directed the Ministry of Energy to comprehensively deal with the challenge of persistent power outages in the country.
Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, December 13, Ruto said frequent power outages were affecting businesses and the country’s investment image.
The Cabinet resolved that the transmission line system should be unbundled so that power failure in one part does not affect the entire country.
“To deal with overloading of transmission lines that causes outages which affect the whole country, the Bomet-Narok line will be built with $250 million (KSh37.5 billion) from the Africa Development Bank,” read part of statement from State House.
The president noted that the Bomet-Narok line was funded in 2016, but it was not built because of legal disputes.
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Additionally, a $57 million (KSh8.5 billion) KenGen solar power project at the Seven Forks Dam will provide a safeguard against power failure.
“The 42MW project has a huge battery storage and if power fails, the stored energy kicks in.
“Another benefit of the project is that this project helps save hydro-power at the five dams that make up the Seven Forks,” read part of the statement.
At the same time, the cabinet secretaries discussed the Kenya-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement, noting that it will be signed on Monday, December 18.
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The agreement, giving Kenya more access to the European Union market, will also be taken to Parliament for ratification as required by the Constitution.
The Kenya-European Union Economic Partnership negotiations started in 2002. In 2016, efforts to have the East African Community countries sign the EU deal together failed.
El Nino rains
The government’s response in mitigating the effects of floods was commended for being well-coordinated and effective.
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The National Government has worked with counties, the Kenya Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations to provide food, rescue and relocate displaced people.
The Cabinet was also informed that Comesa has once again extended Kenya’s sugar import quotas, which were ending this year.
