Kenya Power, the near-monopoly electricity distributor, wants suppliers of materials to negotiate with global manufacturers to set up plants locally through joint ventures.
Chief executive Ben Chumo yesterday said local plants will create numerous job opportunities, increase power sales and spur growth in Kenya's wealth.
The company targets to connect at least 70 per cent of the households at the end of Jubilee administration's first term in August next year.
“When we import, for example transformers from China, they don't consume our products, neither do they employ our people,” Chumo told reporters in Nairobi. “Since we are in business already with countries like India and China, why don't they come and manufacture those transformers locally here so that we can benefit mutually? That's our intention and we want, going forward, to see Kenyans gathering courage and being able to manufacture these products locally.”
Hundreds of billions of shillings will be invested in electricity connectivity, infrastructure expansion, and maintenance projects by 2020, the time the country targets to have achieved a 100 per cent power coverage.
The three-phase, low-cost Last Mile Electricity Connectivity project for households, is expected to gobble up about Sh44 billion by end of next year. The Sh13.5 billion first phase targeting 314,200 homes kicked off in April, while the Sh15.20 billion ($150 million) second phase targeting 312,500 households, and the third phase, which will cost the same amount, will begin concurrently.
Electricity network and upgrade is set to cost Sh109 billion in the next three years, while system maintenance is estimated at Sh10 billion over the period.
The publicly traded utility, owned 51 per cent by the state, yesterday said it will prioritise local products going forward. Some of the materials in demand include cables, meters, transformers, surge arrestors, conductors, construction adaptors, fuse carriers and cut-outs, break switches and insulators among others.
KPLC started the process of procuring 195,299 treated wooden poles on July 14 for the second phase of Last Mile project, largely funded by the African Development Bank and the World Bank.
“If a contractor wins contracts and doesn't deliver it, when we go to tendering next round we will not give you additional work,” Chumo warned. “We will only give you additional work subject to you completing what you have you. If you have work that you have not completed, don't come back for more.”
He said the utility has faced frustrations in securing way leaves for its projects, mostly from public institutions, citing Kenya Wildlife Services.
“I want to request for solutions particularly for those institutions so that they appreciate and recognise that these projects belong to the country,” the KPLC boss said. “The earlier we agree to have these way leaves available to KPLC, the better for the entire country including them.”