- Gathuma requested the committee to give him seven days to present the names of the owners of the local companies owning shares in the IPPs.
- Musyoka said his team will seek the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General to unmask the owners of foreign companies owning shares in the IPPs.
Image: FILE
Business Registration Service Director General Kenneth Gathuma on Thursday came under fire for failing to reveal the names of the owners of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to MPs.
Members of the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Energy, who are probing the high cost of electricity in the country, were expecting Gathuma to reveal the names of the individuals owning IPPs.
Instead, Gathuma named companies that owned shares in the IPPS, most of them being foreign firms.
Gathuma requested the committee to give him seven days to present the names of the owners of the local companies owning shares in the IPPs.
Committee chair Vincent Musyoka said his team will seek the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General to unmask the owners of foreign companies owning shares in the IPPs.
“We will come them out from wherever they are hiding. We will the services of Interpol if need be,” he stated.
Gathuma was expected to present the details of the ownership of 12 IPPs.
They included IBER Africa Power, Lake Turkana Wind Power, ORWPOWER, Kipeto Energy, Tsavo Power Company, Rabai Power Limited, Thika Power Limited, Gulf Power Limited, Triumph Power Generating Company, Vestas Eastern Africa Limited, Noora Power Limited and Industrial Promotion Services.
Various players in the energy sector have blamed IPPs for the high cost of electricity in the country.
The cost of electricity has been at an all-time high affecting the cost of living and doing business.
IPPs on their part have blamed the soaring prices of Heavy Fuel Oil for the high cost of power in the country.
In April 2023, Thika Power Limited and Iberafrica Power told the Senate Energy Committee that thermal IPPs are not the reason behind the high cost of electricity as “people may want to believe”.
They named drought and weakening shilling as other factors contributing to high electricity costs.
IPPs have also come under fire for charging Kenya Power in US dollars and Euros yet Kenyans were paying in shillings.
On Thursday, Ruiru MP Simon King’ara wondered why Gathuma presented the physical addresses of the companies and not the owners of the firms.
“There is a need to unwrap the faces so that we see the people who are injuring Kenyans with the high cost of electricity,” he stated.
Parliamentarians are concerned that Kenya Power procured a large quantity of power from IPPs at a greater cost leaving out KenGen hence the high cost of power.
The presidential task force investigated the reasons for the high costs of electricity and concluded that Kenya Power's involvement in expensive and uncompetitive power purchase deals with IPPs was the main cause.
The task force recommended a raft of measures to ensure the issue was rectified, including renegotiation of terms between the utility firm and IPPs, and changing of contracts that were unfavourable to the company.