NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 3- Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi has announced plans to overhaul the energy sector as part of government measures to lower fuel and power costs.
Matiang’i who also chairs the Cabinet committee on national government projects said the Government will implement the proposed reforms on Kenya Power by a task force appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In the report presented to the President on Wednesday, the taskforce chaired by John Ngumi proposed an overhaul of the KPLC to be supervised by the Cabinet and a review of the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) between the power firm and private firms.
Matiang’i said the Government will expand the recommendations of the taskforce to undertake a wider review and overhaul of the entire energy sector, Dr Matiang’i said.
“In the coming weeks, we will launch an aggressive program to address the challenges in the energy sector. We are certain that the prices of fuel will not only come down but even the bills and the costs of electricity we are paying will come down,” he said.
Matiang’i said the high cost of power was affecting the county’s competitiveness in attracting local and foreign investments and also frustrating businesses’ profitability.
He was speaking in Isinya, Kajiado county during a fund drive for the construction of the Seventh Day Adventist church South Nairobi-Kajiado branch headquarters that was also attended by his cabinet colleagues Joe Mucheru (ICT) and Eugene Wamalwa (Defence), Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku and other leaders.
The taskforce on Kenya Power blamed the high cost of electricity in the country on contracts that unfairly benefited independent power producers at the expense of the power firm and consumers and recommended the review of all such contracts within four months.
There has been uproar since last month when the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) hiked pump prices by Sh 9.5 average, signalling tough times ahead across many sectors of the economy.
The regulator had imposed consecutive hikes in April, May, and June after which the prices remained unchanged for two months as a result of retention of the fuel costs.
In June crude prices soared to the highest levels in three years as a result of production cuts by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations and COVID-19 vaccine rollout in different countries that sparked anger among Kenyans.
This saw the National Treasury set aside Sh1.4 billion for the operations of the fuel price stabilization mechanism in the second 2020/21 supplementary budget estimates.