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Hello and welcome to the Evening Brief Newsletter where we are struggling to see the President's face.
Blackouts Everywhere
It seems President William Ruto cannot escape the ubiquitous power blackouts long considered a sore point for Kenyan taxpayers.
Even after leading radical changes to guarantee service delivery at the monopolistic Kenya Power company, the Head of State endured two blackouts in a span of five minutes while delivering a speech, but remained unbothered.
Ruto, who was addressing cabinet secretaries at a retreat in Naivasha yesterday, was in the middle of explaining his government's agenda and why he chose them (the CSs) to help him deliver his mandate when lights went off. Davis Chirchir, the Energy CS, was in attendance.
The first black out lasted for approximately eight seconds while the second lasted for five seconds. Ruto was, in both instances, heard struggling to deliver his speech momentarily before the lights were restored.
When he took over the reins, the Head of State reshuffled Kenya Power's leadership to ensure that service delivery was not interrupted. The radical decision was made after the country suffered countrywide blackouts on two occasions in the second half of last year alone.
Ruto had also directed Chirchir to handle power outage issues, noting that frequent blackouts Kenya’s investment profile. Power remains a challenge.
High on Power
As Ruto deals with his dark-room speech situation, Kenyans continue to struggle with keeping the lights on.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has assured that the current high power prices will continue until December this year in an effort to recover an eight-month unpaid subsidy accrued between October 2019 and March 2023.
EPRA implemented a 15% reduction in tariffs for its end-users in 2022 following a presidential directive that was effective from January 2022 till April 2023.
To maintain this reduction, EPRA required a revenue of Ksh26.3 billion. Sector entities collectively pledged to contribute KSh12.2 billion, with the remaining balance of KSh14.1 billion to be covered through a subsidy from The National Treasury.
However, the pass-through costs remained unchanged from January 2022 with the Treasury honouring its commitment up to August 2022.
The cost incurred for the remaining four months following the shift in policy had to be billed to the consumers.
Fast forward to April 2023, EPRA was forced to further review its tariffs for 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026, which now included the aforementioned unfunded costs.
领英推荐
According to the Medium Term 2024 Budget Policy Statement from the Treasury, the Energy Ministry recorded less than 3 per cent growth in 2023 Q3
Data Point
Even with its tribulations and frequent, albeit unnecessary power outages, Kenya remains a leader in the percentage of the population with access to electricity in the East African region.
This year, 76.5 per cent of Kenya's population enjoy electricity use, compared to its second competitor, Somali, whose access stands at 49.3 per cent.
The success is directly attributable to the last mile project to connect all households to the grid that formed the manifestos for both President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta's regimes.
Here are five other stories keeping our journalists busy;
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This newsletter was written by Derrick Kubasu and edited by Brian Muuo.
Washington Mito contributed to the content.
Graphics prepared by Adongo Kyalo and Ronnie Mbugua.