Only 3pc of homes in 3 counties have electricity
Kenya Power employees at work in the past. Turkana, Tana River, Mandera and West Pokot are among counties with the lowest number of households connected to the power grid, a new survey reveals. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- The County Electrification Status reveals that in Turkana County only two per cent of its 142,864 households have access to electricity.
- The results of the survey came five days after the government revealed an ambitious plan that could see the cost of connecting Kenyans to electricity decline drastically in the next two months.
Turkana, Tana River, Mandera and West Pokot are among counties with the lowest number of households connected to the power grid, a new survey reveals.
The County Electrification Status reveals that in Turkana County only two per cent of its 142,864 households have access to electricity.
This means that only a paltry 2,617 homes were connected to the power grid. The county has a population of about 992,001.
The situation was equally bad in Tana River County, where only 1,639 of 54,986 homes had access to electricity — about three per cent.
In Mandera County, only 4,131 of 145,538 homes had electricity. The statistics indicate the county has a population of about 1,189,562.
The research was done by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, while the findings were presented by Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo at the Devolution Conference in Kisumu this week.
Other counties identified as having very few homes with power include Migori, Narok, Homa Bay and Samburu (6 per cent); Wajir and Bomet (7 per cent); Kitui (8 per cent); while Kakamega and Marsabit both had 9 per cent.
Overall, 3,236,987 of 10,168,139 households in the country have electricity, representing a 37-per cent coverage.
AMBITIOUS PLAN
The results of the survey came five days after the government revealed an ambitious plan that could see the cost of connecting Kenyans to electricity decline drastically in the next two months.
Speaking in Kisii County on last Sunday, Deputy President William Ruto told of a plan to reduce the initial charges from the current Sh35,000 to Sh15,000 to light up more homes and businesses.
“Gone are the days when electricity used to be connected on a who-you-know basis. Earlier, people used to pay Sh70,000 to be connected to the national grid. It then moved to Sh35,000 but this is still expensive to our people,” he said on Monday.
He said by June this year all public primary and secondary schools will have been connected to the national grid in the ongoing exercise.
