12 December 2015, Nairobi — Kenya Power has signed 11 agreements with contractors worth Sh15 billion for the commencement of the first phase of the last mile connectivity project.
The project is donor funded and supported by the government and aims at increasing access to electricity to Kenyans.
The first phase funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) will connect about 314,000 households to electricity and will be implemented in a period of 18 months.
The programme will see customers within 600 metres of transformers radius connected at a subsidized cost of Sh15,000.
“A total of 5,320 existing distribution transformers will be utilized to the maximum through extension of low voltage network with construction of 12,000 kilometres of low voltage distribution lines,” said Kenya Power Managing Director Ben Chumo.
He said of the 11 contractors, six of them were Kenyan while five were foreign.
Among the Kenyan contractors include Neo Electric Company, Etrade Company, Polyphase Systems, Rwathia Distributors and Kiewa Group consortium, Metsec Cables and Empower Installations.
Foreign contractors are: AEE Power (Spain), Angelic International (India), Shenzehen Inhemeter Company (China) and Gammon India Limited among others.
“The tendering process was completed and AfDB gave “No Objection” to award the winning bidders, the 11 lots out of 110 bidders, comprising of 10 Lots of work contractors and one Lot of prepaid metres,” Chumo explained.
He said the firm endeavours to connect over one million new customers every year going forward in a bid to achieve the70 percent by 2017.
*Kennedy Kangethe – Capital FM
