The first phase of the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP), which is intended to enhance access to electricity by rural households, will finally be launched on April 3. Kenya Power chief executive Ben Chumo yesterday told the parliamentary Energy and ICT committee that the first phase will take 18 months and will connect approximately 314,200 households across the 47 counties, providing electricity access to an additional 1.5 million Kenyans.
The project is fully funded by the government through loans from development partners with Kenya Power as the implementing agency—which has further contracted 11 companies to carry out the project. Six of the contractors are local companies that were established through joint ventures.
“For many years we have not had accelerated accessibility to electricity, especially in the rural areas, because of the high cost of connectivity. But this is now going to change and we have projected to have a universal connectivity by or before 2020.
Currently, we have connected 53 per cent of households in the country and by the end of next year we will scale it to 70 per cent,” Chumo told the committee. The first phase will cost $150 million (Sh15 billion), with the African Development Bank (AfDB) contributing 87 per cent of the amount and the government offsetting the rest.
Around Sh43.5 billion has already been committed by development partners for the other phases of the project. Negotiations for an additional Sh15 billion from AfDB have been concluded and awaiting the bank’s board approval. The World Bank, through the International Development Association (IDA) has also given the government Sh15 billion, which will go towards providing connectivity in peri-urban areas under the Kenya Electricity Modernisation Project.
The programme seeks to connect 312,500 households and hence increase electricity access to a further 1.5 million Kenyans. “The French Development Agency, together with European Union, also aims to make available 120 million Euros (Sh13.3 billion) for the implementation of the LMCP. Of this amount, Sh10 billion will be a concessional sovereign loan from the French Government and Sh3.3 billion will be a grant from the European Union,” said Chumo.
