• About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Kenyan Business Feed
  • Home
  • African
  • News
    • Agribusiness
    • Courts
    • Hospitality
    • Manufacturing
  • Education
  • Health
  • Reports & Analysis
  • World Business
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • African
  • News
    • Agribusiness
    • Courts
    • Hospitality
    • Manufacturing
  • Education
  • Health
  • Reports & Analysis
  • World Business
No Result
View All Result
Kenyan Business Feed
No Result
View All Result
Home News

New approaches for universal access to power

Kenyan Business Feed by Kenyan Business Feed
New approaches for universal access to power
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Table of Contents

Toggle
        • Columnists
  • New approaches for universal access to power
Columnists

New approaches for universal access to power

Monday, June 10, 2019 19:58


By KARIUKI WAIHENYA |

Kenya Power technician
A Kenya Power technician at work. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

Despite recent progress by the Kenyan Government to connect its more than 45 million citizens to electricity as well as turbo-charge a drive towards clean energy, more than half the population is still in darkness.

According to Kenya Power and Lighting Company, the country’s power distributor, access to electricity has risen in the last four years from 26 percent of homes in 2011 to 73 percent (both grid and off-grid) as at the end of June 2018.

The persistent gap in access has been blamed on low investment in the power sector by private investors, high cost of rural electrification, limited distribution capacity and limited capacity during peak demand.

Yet as a coalition of energy sector leaders and experts sought to demonstrate recently at the annual African Utility Week in Cape Town, South Africa, a world of opportunity and hope beckons.

The coalition created a bench mark for East Africa and the continent as a whole by launching the first real-world project to show-case new business models bringing together Uganda’s largest electricity distribution company Umeme and several leading decentralized (off-grid) renewable energy companies to demonstrate the potential for integrated energy.

The co-ordinator of the initiative, Power for All, published a report, Utilities 2.0: Integrated Energy for Optimal Impact, a strategy to boost the war against energy poverty. Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the strategy seeks to challenge traditional approaches to energy access and spearhead the role of integrated systems that fully leverage decentralized renewable energy as the next frontier for global power supply, in Uganda and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa as well.

Kenya’s development blue print the Vision 2030 has identified energy as a key foundation and “one of the infrastructural enablers upon which the economic, social, and political pillars of this long-term development strategy will be built.”

The Government is focused on sustaining a stable investment climate for private-sector participation in energy, developing expanded transmission and distribution networks to deliver power to customers, maintaining cost-reflective tariffs, and reducing inefficiency in the sector to support more affordable end-user tariffs.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda, on which he hopes to build his legacy, has placed energy at the centre of the four pillars of Food Security, Manufacturing, Universal Health Care and Affordable Housing.

“To achieve the Big Four Agenda, adequate supply of electricity is, undeniably, a primary enabler. This is the reason why electricity generation and distribution has been at the top of our infrastructural development programme,” the President said in April in his annual State of the Nation address.

Yet for Kenya to effectively place energy at the core of its development plans, new integrated approaches are needed to deliver universal access, especially for hard-to-reach last-mile customers, and to support the expansion of solar, wind and geothermal generation.

It can achieve this by working hand in hand with private sector companies, who are built to be flexible, customer-centric and cost-efficient, thus pushing more investments to the renewable energy sector by aligning with support from the international community and private capital that is still largely on the sidelines.

The writer is Education Editor, Daily Nation.


Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]
Kenyan Business Feed

Kenyan Business Feed

Recommended.

Shilling expected to weaken : The Standard

May 24, 2019
Mountain Bongo relocation to Kenya

17 mountain bongos arrive in Kenya from US

March 2, 2025

Subscribe.

Trending.

Safaricom’s SIG Forum empowers SMEs with branding insights from 3Verse Kenya, showcasing award-winning campaigns and inclusive business support.

Safaricom’s SIG Forum Empowers SMEs as 3Verse Kenya Shares Award-Winning Branding Strategies

June 23, 2025
Co-op Bank Launches New Financial Solutions to Empower MSMEs in Kenya

Co-op Bank Launches New Financial Solutions to Empower MSMEs in Kenya

June 23, 2025
Tourism CS Rebecca Miano discusses the economic impact and global appeal of the 2025 Safari Rally

Tourism CS Rebecca Miano Reveals Economic Impact of the 2025 Safari Rally

April 1, 2025
PLP and Safaricom Graduate 300 Youth in Push for Digital Talent Development Across Kenya

PLP and Safaricom Graduate 300 Youth to Boost Kenya’s Digital Talent Pipeline

June 23, 2025
Co-operative Bank Subsidiaries

Co-operative Bank Subsidiaries Shine with Strong 2024 Profits

April 2, 2025
Kenyan Business Feed

We focus on news, analysis, and reports about Kenyan business, covering sectors like agriculture, finance, tourism, and technology.

Categories

  • African
  • Agribusiness
  • Courts
  • Education
  • Health
  • Hospitality
  • Manufacturing
  • NetWorths
  • News
  • Reports & Analysis
  • World Business

Popular News

  • First look at the prison where El Chapo may live for the rest of his life

    First look at the prison where El Chapo may live for the rest of his life

    2157 shares
    Share 1040 Tweet 466
  • Sameer Africa CEO Sacked

    1803 shares
    Share 749 Tweet 439

Recent News

Co-op Bank Partners with WorldRemit to Power Seamless Diaspora Transfers in Kenya

Co-op Bank Partners with WorldRemit to Power Seamless Diaspora Transfers in Kenya

June 23, 2025
Co-op Bank Launches New Financial Solutions to Empower MSMEs in Kenya

Co-op Bank Launches New Financial Solutions to Empower MSMEs in Kenya

June 23, 2025
  • Home
  • African
  • News
  • Education
  • Health
  • Reports & Analysis
  • World Business

© 2025 KBF

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • African
  • News
    • Agribusiness
    • Courts
    • Hospitality
    • Manufacturing
  • Education
  • Health
  • Reports & Analysis
  • World Business

© 2025 KBF