Kenya Power exceeds half year connectivity target
Kenya Power has surpassed its connectivity goals for the half-year period ending December 2023, outperforming the target by 13.87%.
The company says it has successfully connected 256,206 new customers to the grid, surpassing the initial goal of 225,000.
This boost elevated the total customer base to an impressive 9,454,819 customers.
Speaking during a press briefing, Dr. (Eng.) Joseph Siror, Kenya Power’s Managing Director & CEO, expressed satisfaction with the progress noting that the accelerated connectivity can be attributed to the effective deployment of the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) and the availability of meters. Launched in October 2023, the RRI played a pivotal role in expediting meter installations for new connections nationwide.
The initiative addressed a backlog of 236,924 pending connections that had accumulated due to prolonged court battles hindering the procurement of essential materials, including meters.
“Following the improvement in meter availability, we recently initiated a metering initiative to accelerate connections. We have exceeded our target for the half-year period and we are on course towards the attainment of our annual target, which will positively impact the journey towards universal access to electricity by the year 2030.”
He said the company aims to connect an additional 400,000 new customers to the national grid by the end of the current financial year. To achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, the company plans to sustain its connectivity drive, targeting an additional 4 million customers.
“In addition to the RRI, Kenya Power relies on other projects like the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP) to meet annual connectivity targets. The LMCP, funded by the Government of Kenya and various development partners including the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), AFD, European Union (EU), European Investment Bank (EIB), and JICA, has already connected 1,431,423 customers to the grid,”
Preparations are underway for the rollout of Phase 4 of the LMCP, financed by AFD/EU and EIB. This project aims to connect 280,000 customers across 32 counties within 18 months.
Despite the successes, the electricity distributor is on the spot for reportedly inflating bills.
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