Senate Energy Committee calls for uplifting of power buying moratorium
Kieni based Power production investor Kanyua Maina taking Senate Energy Committee members Edwin Sifuna, Wahome Wamatinga and James Lomenen through his firm site on Friday. Photo/PAUL MWANGI WANJIRU
By Our Correspondent
The Senate want the government to lift a ban on procuring electricity from independent producers.
Through its Committee on Energy, the Senate want the moratorium lifted so as to make electricity more available and cheaper.
Committee chairman Eng. Wahome Wamatinga said his team will be working towards ensuring some power providers who were left out when the moratorium was placed are allowed to have their electricity put in the National grid.
Wamatinga spoke on Friday when the committee toured an Independent power producing firm in Kieni West sub-county within Nyeri County.
The production company owner, Kanyua Maina narrated to the team how he had suffered after he was denied a chance to have his Solar power connected to the national grid.
He said, he had suffered immense loss as he had secured loans to start the project.
During the visit by the Senate Committee which acted as a fact finding mission, the team was taken round the impressive facility by the investor and his team.
Maina told the tram that he invested Sh220 Million in a Solar firm but government bureaucracies frustrated his efforts of getting returns as he had anticipated.
He said he completed the project abput two years ago but he was not connected into the national grid despite having an agreement with the Kenya Power.
Ironically, some other investors were connected to the grid and are said to sell their power three times more than what he had proposed to the national power utility company.
After touring the facility, the Energy Committee chairman who is also the Nyeri Senator said, “I sympathise with Mr. Maina who is counting losses as the 200M loan he took from a UK based financial institution and a local Bank is still attracting interests. As a committee we have agreed to have a meeting with the CS Energy and the PS to not only solve the hiccup the investor we visited today is facing but also others facing similar challenges that requires government interventions”. He said the Kenya Kwanza administration wanted to attract more investors especially those focusing on green energy so as to make the country industrious.
Wamatinga was accompanied by among others, Senators Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi) and James Lomenen (Turkana) as well local leaders led by area MCA Kamau and his nominated counterpart Kelvin Kariithi.
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