President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday reiterated the State's commitment to connect more than 300,000 households to the main electricity grid under the Last Mile Connectivity Project.
Speaking in Kiambu, where 18,290 households will be connected to electricity by
June 2017, said the government was keen on keeping the cost of connectivity at Sh15,000 for new account holders.
The project involves increasing the number of installed transformers all over the country and ensuring all households near every transformer are connected after the costs were reduced from Sh35,000.
“Every Kenyan who needs electricity must be connected. The days when electricity was a preserve for the well to do is long gone. The approach we are taking will bring equality,” the President said.
The President said the promise by the Government to raise electricity connections coverage to 70 percent is well on target and will be achieved by 2017.
He said that the government has taken a step further to boost access to electricity by allowing customers who are not able to raise the chargers at once to pay in instalments.
“When we came into office only 30 percent of Kenyans were connected to electricity and we said we must raise it to 70 percent. First we increased our power production and then we said all schools must be supplied with power. Now we have embarked on ensuring every Kenyan homestead has electricity,” he said.
The President toured Ndiguini village in Ndeiya, Kikuyu Constituency, to inspect the implementation of the project and visited households that have just been supplied with electricity.
He also presented the actual quotations the owners of the houses got from Kenya Power indicating that they have been charged only Sh15,000.
Energy CS Charles Keter said the President has given instructions that there should be no segregation in access to power.
“Previously electricity was a privilege enjoyed by the rich people now the President has instructed us to ensure that we do not segregate between the big and the small,” said Keter.
In Kikuyu Constituency, 27 new transformers will be installed to connect 1600 new customers.
The Last Mile Connectivity Project is being implemented simultaneously with the National Schools Electrification Project through which the government is supplying electricity to all schools in the country.
The project to electrify schools, which is nearly complete, has also increased the number of households connected to power.
When a school is connected to electricity, all houses within the vicinity of the school are required to be connected to power.
Homa Bay, Siaya and Kisii counties have had the project launched with similar initiatives targeted for North Eastern.
President Kenyatta urged the residents of Kikuyu Constituency to maintain peace and cohesiveness as the country approaches the electioneering period.
Kiambu Governor William Kabogo and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa also spoke at the event.