The Government will connect 566,000 homes to the electricity grid at a cost of Sh42bn, Energy and Petroleum Principal Secretary Alex Wachira has said.

He said the connections were the beginning of an ambitious plan that would see the government allocate money every year to have 90 to 95 percent of all homes connected to power by 2030.

Wachira was speaking in Mbeere North when he commissioned four new electrification projects that will see 600 householders and institutions in Cianthia, Karerema, Cieria and Kanyaga/Gitiburi connected to the national grid.

The PS said priority would be given to areas with low electricity and urged beneficiary communities to look out for people who might want to vandalize the infrastructure.

He said vandals cost the government over Sh2bn in damages annually, adding that power and roads infrastructure was the most hit, usually by scrap metal hunters.

A director of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) Mark Nderitu said the projects would take abou
t one month to build and asked the beneficiary communities to help speed up the work by wiring their houses and granting wayleaves where necessary. The connections will be free of charge.

He said some 322 projects would be implemented around the country this year under the Last Mile Connectivity Programme with priority to areas that have never had any form of electricity connections ever.

He said he expected that the projects would transform the socioeconomic life of affected areas.

Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku said his Constituency had mapped out 684 villages in his constituency that need first time electricity connections through about 300 transformers.

Ruku said the electrification of the areas would be followed by the laying of an optic fiber cable to power three proposed ICT hubs.

Source: Kenya News Agency