President Kenyatta in his Jamhuri Day address on December 12, 2021, announced that the cost of power would drop by 15 percent by the end of 2021 with another 15 percent expected by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Four months later, things remain the same and there is no promise of them changing any time soon, according to Independent power producers (IPPs), who supply Kenya Power with electricity.
On Thursday, April 21, 2022, the Electricity Sector Association of Kenya (ESAK), the lobby for Kenya’s top IPPs announced that the government had not invited them for talks on how to reduce power costs, despite previous promises.
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“As far as I know we are still waiting for the ministry to call us for talks which they have not done to date. None of the big power producers have met them to date,” said George Aluru, the chairman of ESAK.
In January, Kenya Power cut retail tariffs by 15 percent hinged on reducing power theft and leakages from an aging network.
Kenya Power bought 46 percent or Ksh41.1 billion of its electricity from State-controlled KenGen with other top producers being wind plant—Lake Turkana Wind— and US-based geothermal firm, OrPower 4 Inc.
More than half of Kenya Power’s Ksh89.1 billion power purchase costs are capacity charges paid to power producers.
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