Orals East Africa>Kenya Power leaves road to Bondo in darkness for three weeks At the hut of the story

Written by Oral East Africa

Kisian town, a small center on the junction of Kisumu to Bondo has been plunged in the dark over the last three weeks turning the little center into purring generators that are pushing up the cost of business.

We were meant to put up a signpost for Vila Del Sol, a beachfront restaurant along Bondo Kisumu road, but it was delayed by the lack of electricity to spray paint.

The welder, Francis Janyakach, the most unbothered man I have ever met, told me casually, that it would cost me Kes500 more for generator fuel if I wanted the job done faster, or I could wait.

The area residents had waited three weeks, from what they claim was a faulty transformer that served the larger area that is growing fast from outflow of Kisumu population as the city grows.

“We have been having only one generator here, serving a huge area, so it was overloaded and they have it repaired it since,” a young youth operating a cyber by the roadside told us.

unfulfilled promises

For many businesses in provincial towns, unstable electricity is a constant challenge with breakdown in Kenya Power’s aging infrastructure.

This tends to push up the cost of businesses in procuring and deploying diesel generators that are sensitive to fluctuations in fuel prices.

The Western region is especially vulnerable after the government failed to construct the high voltage line from Olkaria through Lessos to Kibos substation with a capacity of 1200mw.

The project was meant to facilitate reliable and stable power to the Lake Basin Economic Block Counties that including: Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori, Nyamira, Siaya, Trans Nzoia, Kericho, Bomet, Nandi and Vihiga. The project will also strengthen the National Grid and facilitate a reliable and stable power supply to Kisumu Seaport.

It would also facilitate power trade between Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Lessos substation will be connected to Tororo via the Lessos – Tororo transmission project (Kenya – Uganda interconnector).

same boat

Many here hope Kenya Power will be moved to intervene to restore electricity while Ketraco will now expand the power infrastructure, especially after the appointment of former opposition minority leader Opiyo Wandayi to head the energy ministry.

Last year, the government signed a $900 million power transmission deal with Adani Energy solutions to construct the 371 kilometers transmission line and five substations in eastern and western Kenya under a public private partnership model.

Mr Wandayi and his ODM party are still on honeymoon face hosting political rallies across the region along with President William Ruto who has received publicity support from grassroots political mobilization.

But as reality sinks, the new broad-based government has to return to the old business of addressing the aging infrastructure for the power distribution companies whose budgets are squeezed by growing finance costs on heavy borrowing in dollars.

Official Kenya Power records showed that its customers were hit with an average of 44.9 unplanned blackouts in the year to June 2023.

In fact, most parts of the country today joined Kisian residents in the darkness following a national outage on disruptions of the country’s main grid transmission lines.