Electrification drive missed target by 5,726 schools, says Keter
Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum Charles Keter at Nyayo House in Nairobi on December 22, 2015. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |
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“Out of the 5,726 public schools, 4,591 are awaiting inspection before power is connected and the projects commissioned. This will be done in the next two weeks while the remaining 505 public schools are currently undergoing electrification works with the entire process set for completion in the next two weeks,” he said.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter Thursday said contractors missed the January 31 public schools electrification project deadline by 5,726 primary schools.
Mr Keter said this was caused by delayed funds and lack of data on all public schools which saw the Rural Electrification Authority conduct its own data collection exercise.
The minister later gave contractors two more weeks to complete the electrification exercise for remaining schools.
Speaking at his office when the Energy Parliamentary Select committee paid him a courtesy call, Mr Keter said that the Sh29 billion project had seen 13,195 schools connected to the national grid while 3,678 schools had solar kits installed.
He said the process to connect another 630 public schools to the national grid was nearly complete and was awaiting installation of metres by Kenya Power upon inspection of the electrical works done by the contractors.
AWAITING INSPECTION
“Out of the 5,726 public schools, 4,591 are awaiting inspection before power is connected and the projects commissioned. This will be done in the next two weeks while the remaining 505 public schools are currently undergoing electrification works with the entire process set for completion in the next two weeks,” he said.
The CS said that the delays created a loophole for theft of materials which led to loss of public funds adding that any contractor must live up to his promise to complete the works within the set timelines.
He said the problem had partly been caused by delay to disburse the funds from the treasury but added that the Rural Electrification Authority had assured him that all was well.
“We are calling upon the Education and the Interior ministries to provide us with data on existing primary school as lack of data adversely affected our planning on the expected time of completion. The MPs must also use their channels to scrutinize our data and point out any school within their areas that has been left out,” he said.
