Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandanyi speaks during the handover ceremony at the KAWI complex on August 14, 2024.
The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy has invited Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi to appear before it next week over idle steam developed by the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) but is yet to be used for the generation of electricity.
The committee chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing wants Mr Wandayi to explain why the steam has been idle for the last 10 years.
“We are not blaming GDC on this, they have done their part. It’s Mr Wandayi who should now explain to us why the steam has been idle for the last 10 years yet we Kenyans are buying power expensively,” Mr Pkosing said.
Mr Wandayi was until last week a member of the committee. This will be his first grilling in Parliament since taking up his new role. The committee said he should be accompanied by officials from GDC.
“It is a shame to the people of Kenya that they have ready steam which is able to produce electricity that can serve the entire country even at peak hours yet it has never been utilised,” Mr Pkosing said.
The matter came up during the committee meeting with the GDC management to examine the corporation’s audited accounts for the financial year 2020/2021.
GDC is tasked with developing steam fields and selling geothermal steam for electricity generation to Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) and private investors.
In her report, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu pointed out that the company owned seven geothermal drilling rigs with a net book value of Sh7.7 billion However, a review of records on their use indicated that four of the rigs had not been used in the previous four financial years.
“One of the rigs was acquired and used to drill two wells in 2016 and had been idling ever since,” Ms Gathungu says in the report.
Further, records on the rigs indicated each could drill one standard well in six months. However, they averaged less than one well per year.
