President William Ruto has directed the Ministry of Energy to comprehensively deal with the challenge of power failure.
Ruto who chaired a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said frequent power outages were hurting Kenya’s investment profile.
During the Cabinet meeting, the Ministry of Energy was also directed to unbundle the transmission line system so that power failure in one part does not affect the entire country.
The Cabinet also resolved to fast-track the building of the Bomet-Narok line to deal with the overloading of transmission lines that cause outages.
According to the Cabinet, the KSh66 billion project which is funded by the African Development Bank has not been built due to legal disputes.
The Cabinet also noted that the KSh200 billion KenGen solar power project at the Seven Forks Dam will provide a safeguard against power failure. The 42MW project has a huge battery storage and when power fails, the stored energy kicks in. It will also help to save hydro-power at the five dams that make up the Seven Forks.
At the same time, the Cabinet was informed that negotiations on the Kenya-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement had been completed.
The agreement which is expected to be signed next week will give Kenya more access to the European Union market, and will also be taken to Parliament for ratification.
The agreement is the most ambitious European Union deal with any African country in terms of climate protection and labor rights. The agreement has been long in coming, with the negotiations having started in 2002.
In 2016, efforts to have the East African Community countries sign together failed.
The Cabinet was also informed that Comesa has once again extended Kenya’s sugar import quotas, which were ending this year. However, this is the last time the extension will be given.
The Cabinet also discussed the National Agricultural Insurance Policy, the National Extension Services Policy, the Draft Languages of Kenya Policy, The National Forest Policy, the Commuter Rail Improvement, and the Food Systems Resilience Project.
Also Read: President Ruto Issues Directive After KPLC’s Nationwide Blackout
