By Ouma Ojango If the Government patronage that has shielded Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KP) from competition were to be dropped, the electricity retailer would suffer the same fate as Kodak, a one-time world leader in technology with products and services in commercial print, packaging, manufacturing and entertainment. Left to its own devices, KP would quickly join the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KP&TC) in the deep end of the sea with no prospects of ever rising to the surface again, leave alone staying afloat. These two are world’s best examples of how not to catch up with…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
By Felix Ochieng Bioenergy dominates the Kenyan energy mix at 65% of the total on-the-grid energy. Other energy sources are oil at 17%, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind at 15%, and hydropower and coal at 2%. The country spends nearly half of its annual foreign exchange on imported fossil fuels such as oil and petroleum that are used to meet the basic energy requirements. On the electricity front, renewable energy currently constitutes 90% of the country’s energy sources, primarily hydropower and geothermal power. Geothermal power, wind, and solar energy have a high potential in Kenya due to…
When the government lowered the cost of power in January this year, we wondered how it would be achieved without bankrupting Kenya Power. The reduced charges meant that the energy distributor was selling power at a loss to some of its customers. It is now official that the cut in power prices is as a result of a government subsidy – the company has been allocated Sh7bn in addition to Sh9bn allocated in February. The move, it appears, intends to reward theft and inefficiency. I have on many occasions demonstrated how the cost of power can be lowered to below Sh12…
Kenya Power’s inefficiencies give an advantage to alternative energy sources. Can solar energy save customers who are out to embrace it? By John Seko and Felix Owino More Kenyans, especially rural ones, now prefer solar power to connecting to the grid. Solar energy has several applications among rural populations, from generating electricity to lighting, heating, and drying. The latest data from the World Bank on Kenya shows that 78% of the country’s population lives in rural areas and far-flung regions, which are usually beyond the reach of the regular power lines served by the national grid. As a result, alternative…
By NJ Ayuk In a 2014 article, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa argued for an Apartheid-style boycott on coal, oil and gas companies as a way to fight climate change and help ensure global environmental sustainability goals. “We must stop climate change. And we can, if we use the tactics that worked in South Africa against the worst carbon emitters,” he wrote. Climate change is something to be rightfully concerned about. But although Tutu’s sentiment is laudable, it is also misguided. Oil and gas companies are not autocratic regimes focused on oppressing the people and steal their resources. They are businesses.…
Africans must reconsider their positions on fossil fuels, and compel financial institutions operating in Africa to fund coal, oil and gas power plants. By Peter Wanyonyi South Africa, Africa’s most advanced and most sophisticated economy, is reeling under punishing electricity rationing. Operational failures, insufficient generating capacity, and an unwillingness to invest in new power plants have combined to create a disaster in waiting, as the country’s electricity monopoly, Eskom, hikes electricity tariffs to service debt. It is estimated that, at any given time, over a third of Eskom’s total capacity is offline due to power rationing. Kenya’s power-rationing story hardly…
For economy of African cities to boom, strong partnership between the public and private sector is required By Antony mutunga In a bid to enable cities to tap financial markets more effectively in order to fund their local infrastructure and development projects, a capacity building program was launched during the 9th Africities Summit held recently in Kisumu, Kenya. The new initiative, backed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Cities and Local Governments, a global umbrella group for local and metropolitan governments, will give city infrastructure the impetus to grow and expand to meet the demands of Africa’s…
T he signing of a framework of cooperation between Kenya Flower Council and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is set to strengthen the efforts in adoption of sea freight for perishables in Kenya. Key to the success of the framework will be the close collaboration between the key stakeholders including both governments of Kenya and the Netherlands, logistics companies, trade associations, growers, exporters and other relevant private sector players. The Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mr. Maarten Brouwer and the chairman of the Kenya Flower Council board Mr. Richard Fernandes signed the…
An advocacy, campaigns, and public affairs organization, Niyel, celebrates 14 years of impact on the continent. Founded in 2008, the female and African led firm has changed the way advocacy is approached. The company has been apart of Africans’ lives for years. Historically, one of the key struggles with civil advocacy on the continent has been the lack of collaboration between global north and global south development organizations. “Advocacy stems from the intrinsic belief system in the universal rights of every single person regardless of gender, age, status and location. Advocacy, which is the art and science of changing policy and…
There is a growing number of women breaking the barriers and taking up leadership roles in top firms in Kenya. Women are confidently leading renowned companies into greater heights and especially in a field like investments, which is traditionally known to be male-dominated. Safaricom Investment Cooperative recently appointed Sarah Wahogo as its first female CEO, a move that the company has not made since its inception 13 years ago. Ms Wahogo is a wife and a mother of three boys who was born and bred in Nyandarua County in a village called Haraka. Her parents were farmers and as early…