They said the public should go to its website and check whether there are schools which have not been included/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 5 – The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) is seeking information on any existing public primary school which may not have been connected to electricity in the Sh35 billion project which is to end by August this year.
REA wants the information on such institutions sent before July 20.
In a joint statement, Chief Executive Officer Ng’ang’a Munyu and Chairman Simon Gicharu stated that if they do not receive any information by the said date, they will close the project.
“If we do not receive any additional schools as indicated and we complete the electrification of the 233 recently identified primary schools listed in our website, REA will then proceed to declare all primary schools in Kenya electrified.”
They said the public should go to its website and check whether there are schools which have not been included.
“The public is invited to visit the REA website www.rea.co.ke and report any public primary school that may not be in any of the three lists of primary schools that may not be in any of the three lists of primary schools pending electrification and is not electrified,” they said.
“It is important to note that this applies only to existing public primary schools and not proposed schools or schools under construction.”
They called for caution since many times a school having electricity has been reported as lacking due to lack of proper information.
“In the past there have been incidences of schools with electricity being forwarded to REA as schools without electricity due to lack of up to date information on the person reporting,” they stated.
“REA appreciates the support from the government by ensuring regular flow of funds to the Authority through the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum which has enabled the successful implementation of the program.”
When the project started, the data available indicated a total of 19,000 public schools had not been connected but since then, 23,375 have been identified.
Out of this number, a total of 22,249 schools have been fully electrified, 18,074 through grid extension and 4,175 through installation of solar PV systems.
REA’s focus was to supply electricity to all public primary schools in the country as a necessary infrastructure for the implementation of the school digital learning programme.
